Champions All
by Osorkon
Summary: BuffyATSCharmed Crossover. Alternative Season 7 BTVS linked to Season 4 Angel and Charmed. Mainly concentrates on the female characters incl WT. Does not include Spike. NOW COMPLETE.
1. The Quest

**Champions All**

_This story is a BTVS/ATS/Charmed crossover. It starts at approximately the same time as season seven BTVS. Everything is canon up to the end of season six. Everything thereafter is subject to change._

_The timeline in Charmed is a little vague and somewhat inconsistent with the series. Prue is gone and Paige is part of the family. Cole is gone and there are no babies or pregnancies. Piper and Leo are married and Leo is not an elder._

_The story links up with ATS season four just after Angelus has escaped but Cordy is not evil and is not therefore the Beast Master. There is no Cordy pregnancy and no Cordy/Connor._

_Warning for Spike fans: Spike does not appear in this story. He left Sunnydale at the end of Series 6. In this story he does not return. The story mainly centres on the many female characters of the three series._

Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction and not written for profit. No copyright infringement is intended. The characters are owned by their various authors and networks etc.

Thanks: There are a few places in the story where I have used dialogue from the Buffy and Angel shows. I have obtained the wording from Buffy World.

**Chapter One - The Quest**

Buffy Summers, vampire slayer, was patrolling. She hadn't seen any vampires or demons for several nights but good old Buffy, good old reliable Buffy was still patrolling. I should go away during the summer she thought. I've done it a few times and nothing much happened while I was gone.

The problem was that going on holiday took money. Slaying might keep the vampires and demons down but it didn't keep the wolf from the door. Now why would a wolf turn up when you're short of money she thought? A wolf I could handle, just ask Oz.

Things don't really start stirring until...well in fact right about now. As if on cue Buffy became aware of two figures, two male figures, walking towards her. They were both well dressed and had a Latino appearance. Unlike the usual Sunnydale "instant kill" vampires these two tried the casual approach.

"Excuse me Senorita, are you local?" asked the taller and older of the two vampires. "We're looking for somewhere to eat."

But as usual with vampires casual didn't last long. By now the two vampires, walking forward had closed the gap between them and her. "Or somebody to eat," said the younger vampire, lunging forward in vampire face, expecting the change to horrify his intended victim into immobility as it probably had many times before.

Buffy stepped aside and grabbed the vampire. She tossed him ten feet hard up against a nearby tree and immediately turned to the other vampire. Slipping the stake from her sleeve into her right hand she stabbed forward as the second vampire leapt upon her. He never landed but immediately disappeared in a puff of dust.

Buffy turned back towards vampire number one who was now back on his feet. He clearly had not seen what happened to his companion as he stood up and looked about him.

"Miguel?" called the puzzled vampire.

"Miguel's right here," said Buffy pointing to the dust scattered at her feet. "He's not hungry anymore."

The vampire uttered what Buffy assumed was a foul Spanish oath and came at her. This time, instead of sidestepping she moved forward herself. She staggered the vampire with a left hook and followed up feinting with the stake in her right hand. With the vampire's eyes on that she quickly staked him underarm with the stake slipped into her left hand from her sleeve.

"The old one-two-three, works every time," she muttered to herself, at the same time looking around her for any witnesses or any other dangers. Seeing none she continued on her way.

About an hour later Buffy approached her home. She was still fretting about the unfairness of it all. Even Willy's shuts down during the summer months she thought. She'd once asked Giles about the lack of summer activity (or should that be Summers activity). He'd hummed and harrumphed, cleaned his glasses and pondered but he had no more idea than she did.

Perhaps it's the extra sunshine or the extra daylight or something she thought. Or perhaps the vampires and demons get special discount package holidays. Roll up roll up, show your fangs and get ten percent off. Yeah, that's probably what Willy does during the summer. Anyway, summer's over now she thought. Something really bad will turn up before long. Then I'll want it to be summer again.

"Still up?" said Buffy as she shut the front door behind her. She could see that Dawn wasn't in her bedroom but was still up and watching the television in the front room.

"School starts tomorrow," said Buffy as she walked into the front room, somewhat surprised. Dawn had been sensible about going to bed for a long time now. "You should be in bed."

"I need to talk to you," answered Dawn. "I didn't get a chance earlier and I wanted to speak to you when Willow wasn't about."

"OK," said Buffy flopping down in the armchair opposite Dawn. "What's up?" Summer's definitely over she thought.

"It's Willow," said Dawn. "She's says she's not going back to college, too many memories of Tara."

"But Tara would want her to go back to college." said Buffy knowing it to be true. Buffy had hoped that getting back into the college routine would do something to help Willow get her life back together. More than anybody she had ever known Willow enjoyed going to classes.

"I told her that but I couldn't get through to her." said Dawn. "I know Xander's tried. You're her best friend. I thought you might be able to persuade her."

"Has she said what she intends to do?" asked Buffy. She had a sudden alarming thought. "She's not doing magic again is she?"

"I don't think so," said Dawn. "I think it's just that she's still grieving and doesn't want to move on."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow," said Buffy.

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The next morning Willow found herself sat at the kitchen table. Buffy had gone off with Dawn to the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High School. Buffy just wanted to see Dawn "settled in," a statement that had outraged Dawn until Willow had pointed out that Buffy really just wanted to nose around the new school.

Willow had agreed to be there when Buffy came back as Buffy wanted to chat over a few things with her. Where do I go to these days anyway thought Willow? Everywhere reminded her of Tara. Willow knew very well what it was about. She'd already had Dawn and Xander tell her she should go back to college. Now it was Buffy's turn.

Willow knew what she wanted to do, what she had to do, but she was feeling a little guilty about it. She would have to go away. Willow's contribution to the household budget from her parents' allowance had kept the Summers/Rosenberg household's head above water in recent months. How would Buffy and Dawn cope if she left?

There really was no point in going back to college at the moment. She wouldn't have any interest in studying. In fact, she thought, she just didn't have any interest in anything mundane at the moment. She stared gloomily at the uneaten bowl of cereal that Dawn had put in front of her before she left.

Willow stood up and wearily picked up the bowl. She threw away the cereal, being careful to hide it under other garbage in the bin. She didn't want Buffy or Dawn fussing about her not eating properly all over again.

Suddenly a figure appeared in front of her. Willow jumped in alarm but immediately relaxed again. It was Anya. Anya could materialise somewhere else nearby and then ring the bell like a normal person but that of course meant pretending to be a normal person. Anya wasn't good at pretending, not unless she was doing business as a vengeance demon. Besides Anya still had issues with Willow over the destruction of the Magic Box and Willow was sure she took a perverse pleasure in making her jump.

"Hello Anya, what do you want?" asked Willow. "Buffy's not here, she's gone with Dawn to school. First day of the new High School."

"Is that the one Xander's been building?" asked Anya.

"Yes, it's in the same place where the old school was destroyed," answered Willow. "You know, the one where we went to school and blew up the mayor." Anya had assumed the persona of a High School pupil during her previous stint as a vengeance demon and had then been stuck with it when her amulet/power source was destroyed and she had reverted to human.

"It's stupid, building a school over a Hellmouth," said Anya. "Buffy should have told them. Not that they would have taken any notice I suppose."

"Is there a particular reason for this visit?" asked Willow. "Because I...

"Have got to get back to brooding about Tara," completed Anya. "Yes I know that's a full time job but don't worry, I won't take up much of your time and anyway it's about Tara, in a way."

"What about Tara?" asked Willow quickly.

"You asked me about other realms, other planes," said Anya. "You remember you wanted to know how to travel to other places."

"And get back again," added Willow.

"Yes, and get back again," said Anya. "You remember I said that only higher beings, basically angels, could travel to and from higher realms."

"Yes," said Willow

"Well, it seems I was wrong," said Anya. "Some human witches have done it recently. They probably had help from some sort of angelic being. I don't know how they managed it but they did."

"Do you know who they are?" asked Willow, "where they live?"

"Perhaps you'd like autographed photos as well," replied Anya sarcastically. "All I know is they did what they did in San Francisco. I don't know who they are, whether they live there or if they were just visiting. You'll have to track them down yourself. Just don't get your hopes up. I can't see any angelic beings helping you after what you did."

"Thanks," said Willow. "I owe you."

"You certainly do," said Anya, "after destroying my shop. I can tell you exactly how much, including added interest. When you become one of those computer millionaires I'll let you have my bill."

"If that magic I did for you works out OK..." said Willow.

"If I need it," interrupted Anya, "and it works, then all debts are paid."

With that Anya disappeared leaving Willow thinking about a trip to San Francisco. San Francisco she thought, only San Francisco. It might have been Arabia, or Patagonia or, or anywhere. Maybe somebody's helping me. Maybe this is a sign that somebody up there's on my side.

No! Willow told herself. Don't do this. Don't hope. This is just one small step. One of many steps and it may not lead to anything. Just take one step at a time. No hopes, just one step at a time.

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Buffy arrived home from the High School and looked around for Willow. She was in the kitchen working at her laptop. Good sign thought Buffy. Perhaps she is starting to come out of it.

"Hi Will," said Buffy. "Whatcha doing?" As she said this Buffy looked over Willow's shoulder and saw that she was looking through flight times. "Going on holiday?" she asked.

"Not exactly," replied Willow. "How's the new High School?" she asked, deliberately changing the subject.

Buffy flopped into the chair opposite and sighed. "Exactly the same as before," she answered.

"You mean they have a Snyder and a Giles and their own Cordy?" asked Willow. "Ooh, do they have a Willow and a Xander because I could give them a lot of good advice."

This really sounds like the old Willow thought Buffy. She is starting to come out of it. I haven't heard her this cheerful since, since...I don't know when.

"No, or not as far as I know anyway," laughed Buffy. "But it does have the Hellmouth. I had to help Dawn out with some ghosty things in the basement."

"She's all right isn't she?" asked Willow.

"She's fine. Somebody was using some sort of amulet to stir things up and I suppose the Hellmouth being nearby didn't help. All the bad guys just winked out when Xander broke the amulet," Buffy explained.

At Willow's insistence Buffy went on to give a full account of the whole incident, including Xander's part in it. Buffy put the broken amulet on the table in front of Willow but to Buffy's disappointment Willow showed no interest in it. OK she thought. Not yet fully back to normal. Research Willow would have gone straight to the books with that.

"Oh, I nearly forgot. I've got a new job," Buffy said suddenly. "The new principal wants me to be a school counsellor."

"A counsellor, as in giving people advice and all that?" asked Willow. Not entirely successfully Willow tried to mask her astonishment that anyone would think Buffy was counsellor material. A new job for Buffy, she suddenly thought. That'll make it easier for me to leave. Willow once again had a small encouraging thought that perhaps somebody was helping her.

"Yeah, three days a week and I'll be earning more than I did for a full week at the Doublemeat."

"That's great Buffy. In fact I couldn't be more pleased," Willow advised. "That'll make it easier for you and Dawn."

"Yes, it will," replied Buffy. "Err Willow, There's something I need to talk to you about."

Buffy explained how she thought Willow should go back to college, how everybody felt the same, how Tara would want her to and how she'd enjoy it like she did before. Willow listened in silence until Buffy finished.

"I know that you all mean well," replied Willow, "and I do intend going back to college, just not yet."

Willow explained that she was going to find Tara. She knew she mustn't pull somebody out of heaven again like she did with Buffy even had she still been able to do so but she felt sure she'd be able to talk to Tara somehow. She was convinced that she could do it. She knew where to start and that was why she would be leaving in a few days.

"I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not crazy Buffy. I just know that we're meant to be together for always. Nothing can keep us apart," Willow said in a rush. "I've just got to go."

Buffy realised that it was the idea of this journey to find Tara, this quest, that had brought back something of the old Willow. Her immediate response was to try to persuade Willow not to do it. Not to waste her time only to be disappointed again and again. She quickly changed her mind.

"Who am I do say what's crazy Will?" said Buffy. "We've seen a lot of things that nearly everybody else would think was crazy. If you think you've got a shot at this then go for it. You're certainly right about Tara. She must be in heaven. If I qualified then she qualified ten times over."

"But how can I talk to somebody in heaven after what I did?" asked Willow. "That's what you're thinking isn't it?" That was certainly what Willow had been thinking again and again. She knew she should be with Tara but she couldn't even be sure they would find each other after she died. That was one of the reasons why she knew she had to do something now and not just assume that all would be well after she was dead. Truth to tell it was how she'd persuaded herself not to commit suicide in the really bad days after she came out from under the influence of the dark magic.

"No, I wasn't thinking that," said Buffy stretching the truth just a little. "Without forgiveness I think heaven would be pretty well empty. You're a good person Will. No, what I was thinking was does this mean going back to the magic?"

"Um," replied Willow with a guilty smile. "I've already um gone back to the magic." Seeing the expression on Buffy's face Willow hastily explained about her chats on the phone with Giles in England and with his friends from the witches' coven. ''So you see I don't really have the option of giving it up completely. I need to use it to control it otherwise it'll just build up and, and...well it won't be nice."

Buffy nodded, gave Willow a supporting hug and wished her well. She made Willow promise to call if she needed any help. "We'll always be here for you Will." she assured her friend.

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A few days later Willow said her goodbyes to Buffy and Dawn at the house. They both needed to be at the High School at the time the plane took off. Dawn, like Buffy was in two minds. She was delighted to see much of the old Willow back but at the same time worried that Willow was setting herself up for a big fall that would take her right back down again.

After Willow left with Xander who was driving her to the airport Dawn turned to Buffy. "Do you think she can find Tara? Do you think she can bring her back?"

"How can I doubt her?" asked Buffy. "Willow's the only person I've ever heard of who brought somebody back from heaven. I think she'll find Tara but I don't think she'll bring her back."

Buffy saw the look on her sister's face and hurriedly continued. "I think she'll find Tara and they'll be together again but I don't see them coming back here."

"You mean you think Willow and Tara will be together again after Willow's dead," said Dawn. As she spoke she realised the implications of what she had just said. "You think Willow will die? You don't think she'll kill herself to be with Tara?"

"If Willow thought she could be with Tara by killing herself she'd already be dead. You know that," said Buffy. "I just think Willow will find some way to join Tara, whether it involves dying or not."

"I'd love to see Tara again," said Dawn. "But if they don't come back together I hope they let us know they're happy."

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Xander had spent a large part of the previous night working out what to say to Willow. Now he remembered nothing of what he had decided on. Like Buffy and Dawn he was worried but was putting a brave face on it.

"Tell Tara we miss her pancakes," he said, "and her smile...Hey, I never saw somebody off on a trip to heaven before." Well not like this he thought sadly but he was careful to remain outwardly cheerful.

Willow knew Xander too well to be upset by his light banter. In fact she knew Xander better than anybody else in the world, certainly better than his parents. She knew that Xander, well Buffy and Dawn as well, didn't believe she was doing anything but wasting her time. She knew they were humouring her because they felt that any activity, even a quest like this, was better than the way she'd been for the past few months.

A part of Willow agreed with her friends, but only a part. That part disappeared completely when she woke up in the night after dreaming about Tara and knew, just knew, that Tara was watching over her. Sometimes she had been certain that Tara's spirit was with her. At her darkest moments there was always the feeling that she wasn't alone. That she'd never really be alone.

The call came to board the plane. Willow picked up her hand luggage ready to go. "Stay safe Will," said Xander. "Look after yourself and when you see Tara ask her if she's got some good looking angel friends who're looking for a date. I've dated enough demons. It's about time I dated an angel."

Xander and Willow embraced and then Willow turned away towards the departure gate. Xander called after her, "a girl angel, make sure it's a girl angel."

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Anya sat at the table of the coffee shop and looked at her friend Halfrek. She wondered if even Hallie was really her friend anymore. Hallie hadn't changed, Hallie never changed but Anya certainly had.

Never go back they say, whoever 'they' are. Well now she knew why 'they' said it. She wasn't the same person she'd been when she was a vengeance demon before. Hallie had just spent the past half hour telling her just that, as if she needed to be told.

If you don't buck up you're going to be in big trouble with the master," said Hallie. "They're taking bets on how long it'll be before he deals with you."

I've been doing vengeance thought Anya but Hallie's right. I've not been doing the big jobs, the ones with lots and lots of death and suffering. I've been doing justice, not revenge. Small pains for small transgressions, not like the old days when I'd disembowel somebody for missing a date. When I had somebody who'd left a girl at the altar I used to...better not go there she thought. Nothing's black and white anymore, it's all shades of grey.

"What you need to do is make a big splash, like you used to," said Hallie, "something to make everybody realise that the real Anyanka is back. I know just the thing."

"I can pick my own jobs thank you," said Anya. "Anyway, I've got a really big vengeance job coming up, something everyone will notice."

"Ooh," said Hallie, "do tell."

"I can't say anything yet," replied Anya. "You'll know about it when it happens." As she said this she realised that she didn't trust Hallie. Hallie was after all the demon who'd been quite happy to condemn her along with everybody else when she'd gotten Dawn to make that wish last year. For all that she wanted to be called a Justice Demon Hallie wasn't into justice. Plenty of innocent victims had always been her style.

Loyalty was not a strong suit with demons she thought, even ones you'd known for centuries. Just as well, we need some advantages...Anya broke off her train of thought. Whatever D'Hoffryn had done to turn her back into a vengeance demon she still thought like a human…she still had her soul. D'Hoffryn must know this she thought. He must be up to something.

Anya stood up. "Look, I've got to go," she said. "Nice seeing you again," she added. Anya left the shop. Once out of public view she teleported away.

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Willow hadn't realised there were so many mystic and magic shops in San Francisco or she'd have come here before. Tara would have loved all this she thought and immediately amended her thought to Tara will love all this when I tell her or...Willow tried to think of something else.

The latest shop was almost the Supermarket of Magic Shops. The bookshelves alone rivalled Giles' school library, the whole library, not just his own collection of books. Willow was searching through all the local magic shops for books about San Francisco itself to see if she could find some clue as to where the local witches hung out and who they might be.

Aha she said to herself as she found the book she had been looking for, 'The Magical Nexus of San Francisco.' It had been listed in the shop's on-line catalogue and Willow hoped it would be just what she was looking for. At least it might provide some clue as to where to aim my search spells she thought.

As Willow began to flip through the book she noticed a young dark haired woman buying magic supplies at the counter. If I don't get anywhere in a few days I suppose I could go up to the nearest person in a magic shop and ask them if they're a witch. A lot of witches must shop here she thought. The trouble was most of them were probably like those at the Wicca meetings in college. Only witches in their imagination. Willow went back to flipping through the book.

Paige Matthews completed her purchases and left the shop without noticing the red haired young woman not ten feet behind her.

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"Are you sure we can trust her?" asked Buffy. "We've never been close."

"We don't have to trust her," said Xander. "Either her coven can do what she says or it can't."

"Whatcha talking about?" asked Dawn entering the front room of the Summers house and sitting on the couch, "or rather who are you talking about?" A talk between Buffy and Xander thought Dawn feeling a little aggrieved. I guess that counts as a Scooby meeting now since there's nobody else. She still leaves me out whenever she can.

"We're talking about Amy," said Xander.

"Amy the rat?" asked Dawn. She didn't really know Amy but she wasn't sure she trusted her. It was Amy who'd taken Willow to see Rack.

"Better not call her that anymore," said Buffy. "She is a witch and there's no need to upset her."

"Yeah," said Xander. "We don't want it to be Dawn the rat next." Or Xander the rat he suddenly thought.

"So what is she going to do?" asked Dawn thinking that they didn't want anybody using magic again.

Xander explained that Amy's coven recently had been hearing the same phrase as they had: "From beneath you it devours." She was convinced that something bad was coming and had contacted Xander. She wanted her coven to do a spell to try to find out what was coming. However she thought that doing the spell might provoke an attack on the coven and she wanted the slayer to be present and on guard just in case.

"I don't like it but I don't see that we have any choice," said Buffy. "We need to know what's coming and I don't have any ideas about how else to find out." I've never been Amy's enemy she thought, well only when we were under that love spell. But Amy was a rat for years. Who knows how that's affected her? "What's Amy been doing with her life the past few months?"

"She's still living with her father last I heard," said Xander. "But she told me she's going to speak to Anya about buying the Magic Box. She thinks her father will put up the money to let her get it up and running again."

"So she plans on staying in Sunnydale," said Dawn. "It sounds to me like she'll want to keep the town safe. No profit in having all your potential customers killed off. The demons and vampires don't generally pay for what they want. I think we should trust her, until she gives us a reason not to." That all sounds logical thought Dawn. I hope it works out that way.


	2. Crossover

**Chapter Two - Crossover**

Willow got out of the cab and paid the fare. As the cab drove away she looked up at the house, impressed. That must be the house she thought. It's the central point of the San Francisco Magical Nexus, or at least that's where I think it is if that book's not just a load of mumbo jumbo.

The house must be at least a hundred years old she thought. It's just the perfect sort of house for a witch, or for a coven of witches. Suddenly nervous she hesitated. For Tara she thought and stepped forward and up the path to the front door. She rang the bell.

A dark haired woman opened the door. "Yes," she said.

"Hello," said Willow nervously, "I'm Willow Rosenberg. I need to talk to you. It's about witchcraft."

"Witchcraft! Sorry, not buying any today, and it's too early for trick or treat," said the woman as she started to shut the door.

"Please help me!" said Willow in panic. "You might be the only person who can."

"Why would I be any help to you?" asked the woman. "And what do you mean by witchcraft?" She sounded sceptical but she was no longer shutting the door.

Suddenly, out of thin air, a large man in a long black coat materialised down the hall behind the woman. He looked human, a rather unkempt human but human nonetheless. However he felt far from human to Willow. A sense of evil and dark magic was immediately apparent to her. He was obviously some sort of demon. The demon raised his right hand threateningly.

"Watch out!" cried Willow at the same time raising her own right hand. The woman turned to see a fireball coming at her from the demon's hand.

"Thicken!" shouted Willow and the fireball slowed almost to a stop. The demon also halted almost to immobility as if trapped in thick tar all around him.

The woman raised her hands and with a sharp movement aimed her power at the very slowly moving fireball. It immediately dissolved. She then did the same thing to the demon, who came apart and vanished. There was nothing of him left, not even the dust left behind by a slain vampire.

The woman turned back to Willow. "Thanks," she said. "Guess you do know something about witchcraft. You'd better come in and tell me why you're here. I'm Piper Halliwell."

Piper led Willow into the front room of the house. As they did so another young woman came downstairs and into the room. "Did something happen?" she asked. "I thought I...uh heard something."

"Paige, this is Willow Rosenberg," said Piper. "Willow, this is my sister Paige. Willow's a witch, a pretty powerful witch. She just saved me from a demon attack. She's here for our help. She was just going to tell me why."

Five minutes later Piper brought in a tray of coffee and cookies and served them around. "Now what is this all about? You're a pretty powerful witch. Why do you need our help?"

"It's all about Tara, Tara Maclay," said Willow. "She's...dead. I miss her so much. She and I were...that is we were..."

"We understand," said Paige.

"We do?" said Piper, not understanding at all.

"Piper, Willow and Tara..." Paige broke off as Leo walked into the room having orbed into the house out of sight.

"Hi Leo," said Piper standing up to kiss her husband on the cheek. "We've got a visitor. This is...

"I know who she is," said Leo, "and I know why she's here. I'm afraid we can't help you Miss Rosenberg. I'm sorry."

Willow was devastated. She had told herself again and again not to hope but of course she had hoped. She had done nothing but hope and now her hopes had been dashed right at the start of what she had expected to be a very long journey.

"Now just wait a minute," said Piper, "what are you talking about? How come you know all about Willow, what does she want, and why can't we help her?"

"Willow wants us to bring her lover back to life but we can't do that and even if we could we're not allowed to," explained Leo.

"Her lover?...Oh her lover!" said Piper glancing at Paige.

"You're wrong," said Willow. "I know you can't bring her back. I don't expect you to do that. That's not why I'm here." Willow started to hope again, just a little.

Willow explained to Leo and the sisters that she wanted to talk to Tara. Tara had been taken so quickly there had not even been time for goodbye. She wanted to know that Tara was happy and...At that point Willow stopped talking because she was not really sure herself what she would say to Tara if she ever saw her again.

Piper explained that the sisters needed to think about what Willow was asking to see if they could and should help. She frowned at her husband as she said this.

"We've got to talk it through amongst ourselves and see what else the Whitelighter can tell us," said Piper. "Could you come back this time tomorrow and we should have an answer for you?"

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_E-Mail_

_From: Willow_

_To: Dawn_

_Hi Dawnie, I got your message. Yes, I'm fine. I'll keep in touch when I can but there will be times, maybe several weeks at a time, when you won't hear from me. When that happens don't worry. It'll probably be good news. It'll be because I'm getting somewhere._

_You're right to be cautious about trusting Amy but I think you should give her a chance. I've known Amy for years and I think she's basically a good person. Coming back must have been very difficult for her, just like it was for Buffy. Last I heard she was trying to get over the dark magic now that Rack isn't about any more._

_There are however a few precautions that you can take when you to see her coven and I've put the details in a separate attachment to this e-mail. If you see Anya, ask her to go with you as well. I know she's a vengeance demon again but I'm sure she wouldn't let anything happen to you or Xander._

_I don't have many of my books with me at the moment. Could you please do a little research for me? Could you see if you can find any references to a person or being called a Whitelighter? The people I saw today mentioned the term and I've never heard it before. I'm seeing these people again tomorrow and I'm hoping they'll agree to help me._

_All my love (please pass on to Buffy and Xander)_

_Willow._

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Phoebe Halliwell joined her sisters and Leo in the living room of the Halliwell mansion. She had already been filled in by the rest of the family about the visit of Willow Rosenberg. They now had to decide whether they would agree to give her the help she wanted.

"You say she doesn't expect us to bring her Tara back from the dead?" asked Phoebe. That's just as well she thought because if we could do that we'd already have done it for Prue.

"She wants to talk to Tara, she lost her so suddenly," said Paige. "We can do that can't we? I mean we talk to gramps and mom. We can bring her Tara here for a while for her to talk to."

"You mustn't agree to this," said Leo. "Willow Rosenberg has used dark magic in the past. You can't trust her." Leo had been briefed in general terms about what Willow had done in Sunnydale over the past year or so. He was worried that Willow would lead the sisters down the path to dark magic.

"Well she saved my life," said Piper. "I owe her for that. We'll be doing the magic, not her. There won't be any dark magic involved. Besides I tested her and she didn't freeze. She's a good witch."

"Isn't it our job to help people?" asked Paige. "She certainly needs help. It's obvious she's not gotten over Tara's death."

"We're not some dead persons contact society where people can come to talk to their dead loved ones," said Phoebe. "If the word got out we could do that we'd be flooded out with people wanting the same thing." But why can't we talk to Prue thought Phoebe. We can talk to mom and gramps but not Prue. I'm sure Leo knows why. I don't believe his excuse of it not being the right time. She died more than two years ago.

"Exactly," said Leo. "Besides I don't believe that Willow just wants to talk to Tara. I'm sure she's got something more in mind."

"You recognised Willow when you saw her," said Piper. "What do you know about her that we don't?" She'd tried unsuccessfully to get more information out of Leo earlier. Well, now he'd better tell us all that he knows, she thought. At least if he expects us to do what he wants.

"Yeah, and you already knew about Tara," added Paige.

"OK," said Leo. "I'll tell you what I know." I wasn't exactly told not to tell them he thought, and I was told not to let them work with Willow Rosenberg.

Leo outlined the story he had been told: Willow was from a small California town, Sunnydale. She had become interested in witchcraft whilst at High School even though there was no history of witchcraft in her family. She had taken her interest further when she met another witch in college, Tara Maclay. The two witches had become lovers.

About eighteen months previously Tara had been attacked and badly injured by a very powerful demon known as a Hellgod. Willow had used dark magic to attack the Hellgod. This had not destroyed the Hellgod but Willow had survived the encounter and eventually Tara had recovered when the Hellgod had been finally destroyed.

Some months later, possibly as a side-effect of using the dark magic, Willow had started to use magic for personal gain, even casually for day to day things. This had lead to problems between her and Tara and Tara had left. Shortly afterwards Willow had been shocked by the consequences of what she was doing and had given up magic altogether.

Willow and Tara kept in touch via mutual friends and several months later decided to get back together. However Tara had then been shot and killed by a criminal, not by demons or by magic. The death was almost immediate and Willow had been present when it happened. Willow had immediately called on all her magic, dark and light, to try to save Tara and when that failed she tried to call her back from death. She was unsuccessful.

Willow then went on a rampage. She killed the criminal responsible in a very horrible way but by then was completely caught up in the dark magic. The consequences would have been severe had Willow not been stopped by her friends.

"Stopped how?" asked Piper.

"I believe she was persuaded to stop long enough for them to counteract the affects of the dark magic with white magic," explained Leo.

"So she stopped herself," said Paige, "before she hurt anybody else?"

"I believe so yes," replied Leo.

"So Willow and Tara are, were witches right?" asked Phoebe.

"Yes," said Leo.

"So where was their Whitelighter when all this was happening?" asked Phoebe. "It seems like they went through a lot. They needed help, a lot of help. Was it her Whitelighter who helped to stop her?"

"You know there are never enough Whitelighters," said Leo. "I'm afraid Willow and Tara never had one assigned to them."

"What do you mean one was never assigned to them," asked Piper sceptically. "These girls came up against a Hellgod. Whatever that is it sounds pretty bad." Mental note she thought, Book of Shadows. "Are you saying that's not important enough to get the attention of a Whitelighter because I don't believe it."

"They weren't assigned help because they already had help, just not from a Whitelighter," explained Leo. "They worked closely with the Slayer. That was how they were finally able to deal with the Hellgod."

"The Slayer?" asked Phoebe.

"That's enough," said Paige. "This meeting is now adjourned to the attic where we will all look up 'Hellgod' and 'Slayer' and any other rabbits Leo pulls out of his hat."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_E-Mail_

_From: Dawn_

_To: Willow_

_Read your reply just before we went to the coven. Didn't have time to find Anya but I did take those things with me and did that spell of yours. It was so funny. Amy tried to play a trick on all of us by doing a spell that changed everybody's clothes around. Your protection worked. The spell must have bounced back on Amy and her friends because their clothes all fell off. Buffy had to get Xander out of the room pretty quickly. Amy doesn't know what went wrong but I hinted that we all knew a lot of magic and were quite capable of protecting ourselves._

_Anyway after that, Amy said sorry, she was just trying to break the ice. She and her witches then did their spells. That's when an ugly little man appeared who Buffy said was Principal Snyder. You probably know he's dead. Well he wasn't really there because he was just a ghost. Buffy put her hand right through him. He made all sorts of threats, like the bad guys usually do, and then he vanished. Buffy says it wasn't really Snyder but was something called the "First Evil." She saw it a few years ago. Buffy's going to ring Giles about it but if you know anything could you let me know please._

_I did your research when I got back. I'll do some more when I can but so far I've found two references:_

_In 'Malvesio's Oracles' on page 278 there is a line which says 'Neither as pure as the soul of a Whitelighter, nor as black as the soul of a Darklighter."_

_In 'The Higher Realms' by Madeleine under the section on Seraphim it states: "It is believed that there are different ranks of the Seraphim, including Elders and Whitelighters but an alternative theory places Whitelighters in the ranks of the Cherubim."_

_Seems Whitelighters are some sort of angel. I asked Buffy to see what Giles knows about them when she talks to him._

_On a different subject I've enclosed a copy of my calculus homework. What good is calculus anyway? Could you please, please, please give me some help if you've got the time? (But don't stop looking for Tara, Calculus is way behind Tara in anyone's priorities)._

_Love You_

_Dawn._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow walked up to the Halliwell mansion. She was even more tense than she had been on the same spot a little over twenty four hours earlier, if that were possible. She rang the bell and Piper answered the door. She invited Willow inside. She led the way upstairs to the attic where Paige, Leo and another young woman were waiting.

"Willow, this is my other sister Phoebe," said Piper. Phoebe stepped forward to shake hands with Willow. "Pleased to meet you," she said. "Likewise" said Willow.

"What...what have you decided," asked Willow nervously. "Will you help me find Tara?"

"My husband Leo..." began Piper.

"The Whitelighter?" asked Willow. "You're married to an angel?"

"You've heard of Whitelighters then," asked Phoebe.

"Not until I heard one of you say the word yesterday," explained Willow. "I've been doing some research but I don't really know what a Whitelighter is."

"A Whitelighter is an angel, in a way. They help witches, good witches," explained Paige.

"So why have I never heard of them before?" asked Willow. "I know I haven't always been good but Tara was a witch and she was always good. She was the nicest person anybody could wish to meet. She never had any help from a Whitelighter."

"There aren't enough Whitelighters to go round I'm afraid. Most witches don't have a Whitelighter working with them," explained Leo. "We generally work in secret, we have to. Most witches never hear of us."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's not your fault what happened to Tara," apologised Willow.

"Right, now that's explained lets get back to what we propose to do," said Piper. Piper explained that they had discussed what to do and Leo had told them about what had happened in Sunnydale. Leo didn't want them to do anything because of Willow's previous involvement in dark magic. However, despite this they had not yet made up their minds.

"Before we consider things further we must be able to trust you. What we want to do is question you under a truth spell," said Phoebe. "We need to know that what you've told us is true. We need to be sure of what you are trying to do."

"We'll cancel the spell after you've answered our questions," said Paige. "You won't have to answer any question you don't want to but if you don't answer we won't help you."

"OK," said Willow. "I can agree to that. Anything else?"

"Like Leo said earlier we're not going to raise the dead," said Piper.

Willow nodded.

"You must not do any magic yourself while we do our truth spell. It'd be too risky," explained Phoebe.

"That's OK but what if one of those teleporting demons attacks again while you're doing your magic?" asked Willow. "You might have to do some more magic of your own then. Couldn't you do a warding spell first to keep them out of the house?"

"A warding spell?" said Paige surprised. "Why haven't we done a warding spell before now?" she asked her sisters.

"The quick answer is we never thought of it," said Phoebe. "But that's ridiculous because we know all about warding spells."

"Leo?" her older sister said turning to her husband. "If we've been too stupid to use a warding spell to protect the manor why haven't you suggested one?"

Leo looked as puzzled as everybody else and shook his head.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It won't be long now thought Anya. D'Hoffryn will soon pay me one of his little visits. He won't like my latest missed opportunity. She continued walking along the road having decided to walk home from the Bronze. The old Anyanka would have turned that man into a worm all right. A monster worm, which would have killed a lot of people, including his former girlfriend. Instead she had turned his plate of pasta into actual worms and made him eat it. No death and destruction, just a stomach ache and a memory that would always disgust him.

She was aware of the vampire following her and the other two just up ahead. I don't see why Buffy needs to go looking for them she thought. They always home in on any woman alone at this time of night. Buffy's been here for years and they never learn to stay away from young women. Most vampires are very stupid.

Anya stopped and turned back to the vampire behind. "Oh come on, hurry up," she said. "I don't have all night."

The vampire walked forward and stopped. "I'm not who you think I am," he said confident she was mistaking him for a human. He abruptly vamped out and leapt forward at her. Anya didn't move a muscle. She simply held herself rigid and the vampire felt he was hitting a stone wall. He fell back surprised and Anya leant forward with a wooden stake and dusted him.

Anya immediately turned to the other two vampires who were approaching from the other direction. "Haven't you idiots heard of the vampire slayer?" she asked. The two vampires stopped and the female one backed away. The other however was a quite new vampire and typically thought himself invincible, even though he'd just seen Anya destroy another vampire.

"You see this is the slayer's town," continued Anya. "It's her business to destroy vampires. The good news is I'm not the slayer. The bad news is I like destroying vampires as well, only with me it's just a hobby."

Since neither vampire looked like attacking anytime soon Anya moved forward herself. She moved at much more than human or even vampire speed. She grabbed the nearest vampire by the neck and ripped off his head. He disappeared in a cloud of dust.

The female vampire turned and ran, only to run right into Anya who materialised in front of her. She took the vampire's head off with the sword that was now in her hand. As the vampire turned to dust she tossed the sword away. The sword, which Anya had constructed from air, immediately dissolved.

"If this keeps happening I'm gonna have to think of some puns," Anya said to herself as she walked away.


	3. The Player

**Chapter Three - The Player**

_E-Mail_

_From: Willow_

_To: Dawn_

_Thanks for the Whitelighter information. If you find out anything more please let me know. I've now met a Whitelighter. He admits to being a sort of angel but he's not exactly my best friend at the moment so anything more I can find out might be a help. _

_I remember the business with the First Evil but as I recall only Buffy and Angel saw it so I know less than Buffy does. I should have asked the people I met about it but I didn't think of it at the time. I'm due to meet them again in a few days and I'll ask them then. They are powerful and good witches and they seem to have good contacts. The Whitelighter is married to one of them. Yes she married an Angel! It's not just Sunnydale people who are weird. I shouldn't be surprised I suppose because I am in San Francisco._

_I have done solutions to each of the calculus questions and attach them with my explanatory notes included. I think people learn calculus so that they can teach other people calculus._

_All my love to everybody_

_Willow_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy watched her last 'customer' of the day leave and then sat back in her chair and sighed. All the kids in this school are crazy she thought. They don't think of me as a counsellor, they think I'm an agony aunt, or a lonely hearts club. If one more boy tries to hit on me I'll... I'll give him lines. "Don't hit on the counsellor."

At least none of the girls have hit on me she thought, or would I even know it if they had? I'll ask Willow what to... She suddenly remembered why she couldn't ask Willow. I hope she's all right.

Dawn's doing her best as research girl Buffy thought but I miss Willow and I'd like to know what Giles is doing and why he doesn't return my calls. I'll give it a couple of days and then see if I can contact Wesley in L.A. she decided.

Principal Wood walked into the office. "You've been busy since you got here," he said. "But you're doing a good job. Getting them to do most of the talking, that's always a good thing."

It is? At least I'm doing something right she thought. I let them do most of the talking because I usually can't think of much to say.

"I'd like you to go full time from next week," continued the principal. "For some reason things seem to be building up at the moment. I think what you're doing is helping to keep a lid on things."

"Does this mean..." began Buffy.

"More money?" finished Wood. "Yes, of course. I've got the details here." The principal handed over an envelope. Buffy opened and read the letter which detailed a substantial rise in the Summers' income.

"I accept," she said quickly.

"Good," said Wood. He turned away but suddenly turned back. "If anybody gives you any idea about what's causing things to heat up lately let me know."

"What do you mean by 'heat up'? " asked Buffy.

The principal explained that since the school had opened there had been a high level of truancy and violence and several students had simply disappeared. Although he was aware of Sunnydale's poor record in all these areas what was happening seemed excessive even for Sunnydale.

"If I discover anything I'll let you know," advised Buffy, mentally adding to herself, if I discover anything you'd believe. She didn't think talking about the First Evil was quite what the principal had in mind.

"Would you mind if I spent part of each day walking about the school and the grounds to get the feel of what might be going on?" Buffy asked.

"Sort of patrol the place you mean," asked Wood.

Exactly like patrolling thought Buffy. "If you like," she replied.

"OK, but be careful," said Wood. "You're a counsellor, not a security guard."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anya walked around the wreck of the Magic Box. She kicked idly at pieces of debris as she did so. I was really building something here she thought. I had plans, in five years I would have expanded to LA, San Francisco even the east coast.

Anya had the insurance money and she had her savings and investments. She knew she could have the Magic Box up and running again if she wanted to without even using her demon powers for 'personal gain'. She was amused by the thought. Isn't that what demon powers are for, she thought, personal gain?

How can I be a capitalist retailer and a vengeance demon at the same time she wondered? Maybe someday if everything works out she thought. All this waiting. I was sure D'Hoffryn would have moved before now.

The door of the shop opened and Anya looked up. It wasn't D'Hoffryn and anyway he wouldn't use the door. It was Amy Madison. Anya had agreed to meet Amy at the shop. Amy wanted to buy the Magic Box and get it up and running again.

"Hi Anya," said Amy. "What's your decision? Have we got a deal?"

"Well I'd like to haggle but the price is fair so I won't, but I don't want to sell," said Anya. "Sometime I'll get this place up and running again myself." Anya spotted a small shiny object in the debris and crouched down to pick it up. It was a lucky charm. Very cheap, and not very effective but Anya pocketed it anyway on the basis she couldn't have too much good luck.

"But you know if you don't get the work started soon the place will be condemned," said Amy. "It's now or never."

"So it's condemned," said Anya. "When I'm ready I'll get it un-condemned, or I'll buy a new place."

"If you can," said Amy. "If you don't do a deal with me I'll start up somewhere nearby. As well as losing your customers you probably won't get permission to start another magic shop in this zone or even in this town."

"Are you threatening me?" asked Anya ominously glaring at Amy.

"Me, threaten a vengeance demon, do you think I'm mad? Of course I'm not threatening you." said Amy. "I'm trying to do a deal with you. I'm not your enemy Anya, or is it Anyanka? If I was your enemy I'd just open a magic shop without even talking to you and let you deal with the problems later if you ever tried to reopen this place. Anyway you're a capitalist. You should like competition."

"Nobody likes competition," grumbled Anya. "Let's talk."

Anya explained that Giles owned half of the Magic Box so she couldn't do a deal for his half. Giles was in England and she wasn't in contact with him at the moment. Anyway she wanted to keep part ownership herself. A deal was struck whereby Amy bought half of Anya's share of the shop. They reached agreement about repair and restocking of the shop. Amy would take over the running of the shop with Anya joining her if she ever retired from being a vengeance demon.

"Do you really think you might?" asked Amy.

"Might what?" replied Anya.

"Retire from being a vengeance demon. Can you do that?" asked Amy doubtfully.

Anya shrugged. "Who knows, you retired from being a rat. Anything's possible."

Amy gave Anya a dirty look but she said nothing more. It was agreed that Amy would make the arrangements to get the shop restored. Amy turned to leave but turned back as Anya spoke to her. "Ask Xander to put in a quotation for the work. He knows the way the shop used to be and he won't overcharge us. Just don't tell him I said that."

Amy smiled and nodded. "OK, your secret is safe with me," she said. "You can carry on pretending to hate him." Amy then left. Anya teleported away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was late at night and Faith was sat in her cell thinking. Something was happening, something big. She knew those dreams she'd had of girls being murdered had been slayer dreams but she'd assumed that was Buffy's business. Buffy 'The Perfect Vampire Slayer' Summers would take care of it like she always did. Now she wasn't so sure.

Faith knew that the knife Deb had used to try to kill her was the same as that used by the rather odd people who had killed the girls in her dreams. Suddenly she realised who those girls must be. Potential slayers! They had that look about them. Faith remembered it from her time as a potential. She'd met a few other potentials during her early training.

Somebody was killing potential slayers and was now going after the slayers as well. That meant that Buffy was in the firing line too. Faith resisted a sudden urge to go to the nearest phone to ring Buffy. She'd have had the same dreams she thought. She'll know more about what's going on than I do and she hasn't called me.

What to do? Faith quickly realised that she couldn't stay put. She was a sitting duck in prison. These people, creatures... whatever, had a long reach. Some of those girls were killed in other countries. They had plenty of people, probably plenty of money too so they could try again and almost certainly would.

But if the enemy, whoever it was, knew so much about slayers it would expect Deb to fail. Nobody who knew anything about slayers would expect Deb to even scratch a slayer. Deb had a big reputation in the prison but in slayer terms she was helpless.

Was this a warning, or did somebody want to spook her? Spook her right out of the prison. If she left would she be doing just what the bad guys wanted? Huh she thought bad guys. I suppose everybody except Angel still thinks I'm one of the bad guys.

Let's not do too much thinking here Faith decided or I'll never leave this bunk. I'll still be sat here the next time they come after me. If somebody wants me out they'll keep sending people until I leave or they get lucky. I'm better off playing my own game she decided. So where to go?

Faith realised she had three choices. One was to try to disappear. The whosits probably had mystical backup. They didn't seem to have any trouble tracking down potentials all over the world and they were meant to be well hidden. If I go somewhere I think is safe it won't be long before somebody comes knocking on my door she thought.

If I leave here I become a player, not a pawn she decided. I'm going after them. I'm going to stop them killing potentials and take them down. I'm going to be The Slayer again. Not the other slayer, not the back up, the reserve, the 'spare'. I'm The Slayer, The Chosen One she thought. They're worried about me. I'm going to give them a lot more to worry about.

Second choice was to go straight to Sunnydale and tell Buffy and her friends she was now one of the good guys and only wanted to help. Everybody would welcome her with open arms and they'd fight the good fight together. Yeah right.

Faith decided to adopt her third choice and look up Angel in LA. She knew about the hotel where he and his gang now hung out. With the rain of fire and permanent dark the TV had reported in LA over the past few days Angel might be glad to see her.

Cordy wouldn't be too happy and nor would Wesley but she didn't have to worry about fighting them. If she went to Sunnydale she could be faced with another knife in the guts from Buffy and a magical whammy from Willow before she opened her mouth. Angel would know what was going on and she could then decide whether to move on to Sunnydale with perhaps some sort of good conduct pass from Angel.

Having made up her mind Faith moved immediately. It was dark and her cellmate was asleep. Everybody was locked down and would be for the next few hours. She went to the window and bent the bars aside. She went through the bars and straightened them from the outside whilst crouching on the sill. Faith had long since worked out her route out of prison, several routes in fact.

As Faith left the window sill by leaping upwards she didn't see her cellmate Maxine jump out of bed and run over to the window. Maxine tried to look upwards but the bars prevented her from seeing anything. She tested the bars but found them as rock solid as always.

"Damn girl, how did you do that?" she muttered. Maxine had known that Faith was odd and special in various ways but this completely astonished her. "And why didn't you do it before?" Maxine went back to her bunk and lay down, already relishing the reaction of the guards in the morning when they discovered that Faith had vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile Faith had leapt up from the cell to the roof in three easy moves, going from window to window, floor by floor. Once on the roof she went to the other side and dropped down into the empty yard. She ran quickly through the shadows around the edge of the yard making sure to avoid the CCTV cameras. After working her way to the perimeter wall she took it in a single leap and disappeared into the darkness outside.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"She'll be here soon," said Paige. "We can't put her off again. We've got to give her an answer. Anyway you know I'm going to LA tomorrow to check out what's going on there. We've got to get this done today. You all know what I think we should do." I think I might help Willow even if the others don't, she thought.

"I don't understand why you still think we should say no," said Phoebe to Leo. "We know what she wants us to do. We know she's not hiding anything. We can do the spell to bring Tara here for a few hours and then that's it." Phoebe had changed her mind after the question and answer session with Willow. Willow was really hurting and she didn't feel she could say no when it would be so simple to do what she asked.

Phoebe still worried about Leo. More and more she felt that he was following an agenda that he had not revealed to them. He had bosses and orders to follow. She wondered just what those orders were.

"We know Willow still wants to bring Tara back," said Leo. "She hasn't given up on that. If you do what she wants you'll just he encouraging her down a path that could lead back to dark magic. Willow is a very powerful witch. The consequences would be horrific. They very nearly were last time."

"What she really wants is to be with Tara. That might mean bringing her back but it might mean joining her where she is now," said Piper.

"You mean she might kill herself?" said Paige horrified. "I didn't pick up on anything like that when we questioned her."

"Willow won't kill herself because she thinks Tara's in heaven but she doesn't think she'll join her there," said Phoebe. "She may be right." Phoebe looked at Leo who just shrugged.

"Willow doesn't know what she's going to do," said Piper. "She wants to speak to Tara first and then take it from there. She thinks they're soul mates and everything will work out if only they could meet again."

"Exactly," said Leo. "Willow doesn't know what she'll do but it's pretty obvious she'll do anything to be with Tara again. Anything! She brought somebody back from the dead before. She's capable of just about anything. We mustn't help her in this. As I said the consequences could be horrific and not just for her but for you and many other people."

"What do you mean she brought somebody back from the dead before?" asked Phoebe suspiciously. "You've never said anything about that. What else are you not telling us? What have you been ordered not to tell us?"

All three sisters looked at Leo waiting for an explanation. "You know I have to follow the orders of the elders," he said. "They don't want you to help Willow. It's much too dangerous."

"And this previous resurrection?" asked Piper. "What's that all about?"

Leo explained what he knew about Willow bringing back the Slayer. How she had been able to do so because the Slayer had been killed through mystical means. She had not been able to reverse Tara's non-mystical death in the same way.

"No wonder she's so determined," said Paige. "She must think anything's possible after bringing her friend back from the dead." Paige began thinking, wasn't Prue killed by a demon? Didn't that count as mystical means? She decided to have a quiet talk with Willow sometime soon when the current business was all sorted out. She looked up to see Phoebe looking at her and realised she was not the only sister with the same thought.

"So what do we do?" asked Phoebe. "We know what the elders want but we know they're not infallible. They've got it wrong before. We've got to make up our own minds."

"I'll tell you what I think," said Piper. "It seems to me the biggest risk we face is having Willow go back to the dark magics." Everybody nodded. "But she doesn't need our help to do that. She came to us for help and we can help her without anybody using dark magic. If we don't help her she may think she has no alternative but going back to dark magic."

"From what Leo says Tara was always a good witch and a good influence on Willow," said Paige. "Letting her talk to Willow is probably the best way we have of making sure Willow doesn't go dark again."

"I think you're making a big mistake," said Leo. "Willow used dark magic to kill. She's quite capable of using it again."

"From what you said she killed the murderer while suffering from the shock of seeing her lover dying in her arms," said Paige. "No jury would convict under those circumstances. She'd have a valid defence of temporary insanity."

"Nevertheless she killed using dark magic," protested Leo.

"It seems the elders are less forgiving than human law," said Phoebe. "I seem to remember you once told us that when a witch went dark there was no going back. Well I went back and Willow has gone back. She's not evil. This business of once an evil witch always an evil witch looks to be a complete myth."

The front doorbell sounded. Willow had made her third nervous arrival at the Halliwell mansion. Before going down to fetch Willow up to the attic Piper confirmed with her sisters that they were all determined to help Willow despite what Leo and the elders said.


	4. Vengeance

**Chapter Four - Vengeance**

Buffy, Xander and Dawn sat around in the front room of the Summers house and discussed what to do about the First Evil. Buffy realised that her dreams of girls being killed were connected because the killers seemed to be identical with what she remembered of the Bringers who served the First Evil.

Dawn's researches had not turned up anything about the First Evil beyond what they already knew. There was nothing that she could find that gave any clue as to how to destroy it.

"Can't we like exorcise it," asked Xander. "That's what you do with ghosts right?"

"Don't you need a priest for that," asked Dawn. "Do we know any priests?"

"I'm thinking if an ordinary ghost can be exorcised by a priest we're going to need a lot more to deal with this thing," said Buffy. "It must have a whole lot more power than any ghost. Before we try anything like that we have to know what we're doing."

"Still nothing from Giles?" asked Dawn.

Buffy explained that not only had she had no call back from Giles but she had been unable to contact Wesley or Angel in LA nor the Watchers' Council in England. Giles hadn't called back, Wesley had moved, Angel's number had a recorded message with Cordy's voice on it saying that Angel Investigations was temporarily closed for business and the number for the Watchers' Council was discontinued.

"You don't think this First Evil thingy has got them all do you?" asked Xander.

"Angel and the gang must be busy with whatever that darkness in LA is all about," said Dawn. "Cordy's message was probably done to clear the decks while they sorted it all out."

"I agree," said Buffy. "I can't believe all of the LA gang are gone. One of them would have called us if things were really bad. They're just busy." She admitted to herself that she was worried about Giles however.

The front door bell rang and Buffy got up to answer it. Dawn and Xander followed her out of the room to see who it was. Buffy opened the door and was surprised to see Giles standing there. She immediately jumped forward and hugged him, this time remembering to restrain herself from using her full slayer strength.

Buffy stepped back, and saw that Giles was not alone. There were three girls standing behind him. "I'm afraid we have something of an apocalypse on our hands. Can we come in?" he asked.

Buffy stood back to allow Giles and his companions to enter the house. When they were all inside and Giles had been greeted by Xander and hugged by Dawn Buffy led everybody into the front room.

Giles introduced his companions. They were three potential Slayers: Vi, Annabelle and Molly. Vi was a Canadian and the latter two were English although only Annabelle sounded like Giles. Molly had a strong cockney accent.

Giles explained about the killing of potential slayers and their watchers around the world in recent weeks. The three girls with him were among the survivors. Others would be joining them in Sunnydale in the hope that the Slayer could keep them safe.

"Don't mean to be a wet blanket or anything," Vi interrupted, "but are you sure this is a good idea? Can one girl, even a Slayer, keep us all safe all the time?"

"We'll be stronger together," said Buffy. "I'll be here and so will Xander, and Giles and Dawn and the other potentials. We can watch each others backs. It's better than being picked off one by one."

A further discussion followed as Buffy and the gang explained what they knew about the First Evil. Giles explained that he also was aware that their enemy was the First. Unfortunately he was of the opinion that it was not possible to destroy the First. This depressed the gang, especially Annabelle and Molly.

"Well if we can't destroy it we'll just have to put it back to sleep," said Xander. "We just need to know why it's causing this trouble all of a sudden and then we can put things back the way they were."

"I'm betting the First knows the Slayer can stop it and that's why it's attacking the potentials," said Dawn. "It's got weaknesses, we've just got to find out what they are."

Buffy asked Giles about the Watchers' Council and what they were doing about the potentials and their watchers. "Nothing I'm afraid," said Giles to the gang's great surprise. "There is no more Watchers' Council. The headquarters building in England was blown up a few days ago and all the members of the Council were killed."

"Was that what the news called the terrorist incident north of London?" asked Dawn. Giles confirmed it was the same event but he believed it was carried out by an agent of the First and not by the usual terrorist suspects.

Everybody responded to this very bad news with silence and glum faces until Buffy spoke up in an effort to cheer them up.

"Well I'm sad for all of the dead people, I suppose some of them were your friends Giles." she said. Giles nodded. "But the Council usually did their own thing. To be blunt about it they never gave us much help even when we had big problems. We're no worse off now than we were before."

Dawn had a very disquieting thought. "Buffy, we've got to think about security." she said. "If this First has got people setting off explosions we've got to make sure it's not us next time."

"I'll talk to Amy," said Xander, "and see if she can set up some sort of defence or warning system for us, some sort of magic whammy for anybody who tries to attack us with magic or set off explosives."

"A magical ward," said Dawn. "That's what it's called. I'll see if I can speak to Anya as well. She knows a lot about magic."

Giles raised his eyebrows. He knew Amy of course and was aware of her somewhat patchy record as far as the sensible use of magic was concerned. He also knew about Anya's present reversion to vengeance demon.

"I'll also do some research along those lines as well," he said. "But is Willow not about?"

Buffy explained about Willow's quest. This produced some very sceptical glances amongst the potentials along the lines of 'what sort of people have we landed amongst?'

"OK," said Buffy, "I'll do some patrolling. I want to have a look at the place where the bringers worked when they were here before a few years ago."

"Yeah," said Xander to the potentials. "We've had these guys before and Buffy sent them packing. No problem."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The three Halliwell sisters stood ready to do their spell summoning Tara. Leo stood nearby watching. Willow sat on a chair to one side nervously clasping and unclasping her hands. Suddenly Leo looked up as if listening to something.

"Sorry, I've got to go," he said. To Willow's surprise Leo then disappeared in a swirl of bright lights. Leo's teleportation reminded her of something.

"Did you do the warding spell?" she asked the sisters.

"What warding spell?" asked Piper looking at Phoebe and Paige. Both of her sisters looked blankly at her.

Willow reminded them of the discussion they had had on her last visit about warding the manor to prevent demons teleporting in to attack. Astonishingly none of the sisters had any memory of the conversation.

"You said that after I left you were gonna research why you'd never done a warding spell before," said Willow. "And you were going to do one to protect the manor."

"I smell a rat," said Phoebe. "As Willow says we should always have had a warding spell on this place. Working with the Power of Three we should be able to put up a strong enough barrier to prevent just about any demon from coming in."

"Sounds like somebody's working magic on us," said Paige. "Somebody doesn't want us to put up wards."

"Well demons wouldn't want us to put up wards," said Piper. "There must be some evil out there we're not aware of yet."

"Have you heard about the First Evil?" asked Willow who explained to the Halliwells what she knew of it and its recent and previous manifestations in Sunnydale. "Could that be it?" she asked.

A discussion followed. None of the sisters had ever heard of the First Evil and they could find no reference to it in the Book of Shadows. Piper thought the First Evil might be to blame. Phoebe was more sceptical as it seemed the failure to set wards was a long standing thing and the First Evil seemed to be a recent problem.

"If we'd had wards on this place Prue would still be alive," said Phoebe. As she said this she wondered if Leo was the culprit. He'd done magic on them before because he thought it to be in their best interests. She would not voice this suspicion without proof however as it would devastate Piper if her husband was in any way to blame for Prue's death.

"Either this thing is self-renewing or somebody did a number on us since our last meeting," said Paige. "Either way why didn't it work on Willow?"

"Because she wasn't here," said Piper. "It might be something to do with the manor itself. Remember we didn't get our powers until we spent a night together under this roof. There's magic in this house and we've never gotten around to understanding it. Maybe the manor resets things overnight?"

I hope she's right thought Phoebe. I hope Leo's really innocent. After further discussion the sisters did a Power of Three warding spell on the house. They then did a remember spell to kick in the next day in case they suffered memory wipe again. At last they were ready to carry out the spell to call Tara.

Half an hour later four very frustrated witches stood around trying to work out why the spell hadn't worked.

"Have you done this spell before?" asked Willow. "Are you sure it works?"

Piper explained the many occasions they had successfully done the spell. One of them working alone was sufficient to call their mother or grandmother. They had just tried a Power of Three spell and even that hadn't worked.

"Let's call Grams now," suggested Paige. "We can see if the spell works with her. She might know why it's not working for Tara."

"Or for Prue," added Phoebe.

"Prue?" asked Willow.

"Prue was our eldest sister," explained Piper. "She was killed by a demon a couple of years ago. We've never been able to call her either. Leo said it was too soon."

"I'm so sorry," said Willow. "What did he mean by too soon?"

The sisters explained that they simply didn't know what Leo had meant but their grandmother had said the same thing when they called her back and she met Paige. This led on to an explanation of why Paige had not previously met her grandmother.

"OK people, times a moving on," said Piper. "I'll call grams now. We'll at least know if the spell still works to that extent."

Piper performed the spell alone and the sisters' grandmother appeared in a swirl of light with her usual beaming smile. To Willow's surprise she was fully corporeal and hugged her granddaughters in turn. The Halliwell sisters then explained their problem to their grandmother.

"I've been told not to help you to help Willow I'm afraid," she explained. "You know the elders don't approve of what you're trying to do."

"Can't you just, you know...hint or something," wheedled Paige putting on what she hopped was her best granddaughter's smile.

"Sorry," said Grams. "If I did I'd disappear before the words left my mouth and it'd be a long time before I'd be able to see you again."

Aha, thought Phoebe. Thanks Grams. "We'd better send you straight back then." she said, "before you're tempted to say something you shouldn't."

"Before you go Mrs Halliwell," said Willow. "Do you know why your granddaughters are having so much trouble remembering to put warding spells on this house?"

"We are?" said Paige.

"When did this happen?" asked Phoebe.

Willow rolled her eyes upwards and explained all over again as it was clear that the sisters had once again forgotten about the warding spells even though they had finally done one.

"Oh dear!" said Grams. "It's all my fault I'm afraid." She explained that she had done warding spells on the manor when she had been the resident witch. She'd also done warding spells on each of her granddaughters after they had been born, including Paige.

"It kept out some demons but there were always some that were strong enough to get through, Grams explained. "I think what we have here are side effects of old magic interfering with new." She explained that what they needed to do was to discharge all the old spells on themselves and the manor before putting on any new ones. Clearly Grams old magic was no longer very effective at keeping out demons and the Power of Three would do a much better job.

"You'd better do it now before you forget again. The details are in the Book of Shadows," said Grams flipping through the book. The sisters looked over her shoulder to see details of the discharge spell.

The sisters carried out the discharge spell and then once again carried out the warding spell. Phoebe frantically wrote down details of what had just happened and left the room briefly to put the note on her bed. "Just in case we all forget again," she explained when she came back. "We won't always have Willow here to remind us."

The sisters said their goodbyes to their grandmother. "Leo's doing his best for you, you know," said Grams just before she disappeared. "He's been trying to persuade the elders to cut you all a little slack." Just as she disappeared she looked straight at Willow and smiled.

Willow was stunned by what had just happened, what she had just discovered was possible through the power of good magic. Grandma Halliwell had not been just a ghostly voice speaking through a medium, she had been real, real to hug and hold even if only for a short time. It took a great deal of effort for Willow to suppress, even a little, all of the hope that now surged within her. Hope that she would at least be able to have a little time with Tara, if only to finally say goodbye.

After Grams had been sent back Phoebe explained to the others the implications of what their grandmother had told them. "She as good as said that the elders could stop her responding to our spell," Phoebe explained. "If they could do that they could block us off from Tara or Prue."

"But why would they stop us seeing Prue?" asked Piper puzzled and upset. If this was true then Leo almost certainly knew about it.

"For the same reason they don't want you to help me," said Willow who yet again had gone from great hope to deep depression in an instant. "They're scared you'll try to bring her back."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anya watched the woman walk away. The woman was no longer crying. Anya had met her in the bar down the street. After the usual prompting her wish had been that her husband had never met his secretary. She had granted the wish. The husband had never met his secretary. She had also granted the meaning of the wish, that the husband go on loving his wife. No blood, no death, no evil consequences.

Anya knew how the old Anyanka would have interpreted such a wish. She would have arranged for some horrible accident to happen to the husband to prevent him meeting his secretary. Given him leprosy perhaps.

Of course granting the wish in the old way wouldn't have helped the woman. She would have suffered even more but that wouldn't have bothered the old Anyanka. Suffering and death of the women she was 'helping' had never bothered her. Now Anya could see just how grotesque she had been as a vengeance demon. She could see the emptiness of her old boasting that she was helping women. Just as empty as Hallie claiming to help children she thought.

"Having fun?" said a voice from the darkness to her right. The voice came from D'Hoffryn who now stepped forward into the light. "Glad you're back as a vengeance demon? A vengeance demon who doesn't do vengeance that is."

Anya looked at D'Hoffryn. He looked the same as he ever did but surprisingly she felt no fear of him. For the first time she could look at him and just see a silly looking demon. One with a lot of power but no responsibility. Just the latest in a long line of demon mischief makers.

"Isn't that what you want?" asked Anya. "You're the one who left me my soul when you gave me my old job back. It shouldn't be a surprise that I've still got a conscience."

D'Hoffryn laughed. "Is that what you think?" he asked. "You don't remember do you? I left you your soul last time. I always leave my demons with their souls. It's what you do as a vengeance demon that costs you your soul, not what I do to you. I just give you the power."

"But I see I made a mistake with you," D'Hoffryn continued. He shrugged. "It happens." D'Hoffryn made a casual wave of his right hand and the amulet on the chain around Anya's neck grew hot and dissolved. He waved his hand again and Anya screamed and disappeared in a ball of flame.

"Pity really, " said D'Hoffryn to himself. "You were always one of my favourites."

"How nice," said Anya who had appeared behind D'Hoffryn completely unscathed. As he turned she pulled his amulet from his neck before he could stop her. D'Hoffryn grabbed at Anya trying to get his amulet back. Astonishingly, even though D'Hoffryn thought he had destroyed her amulet Anya still had her full power as a vengeance demon and she knocked D'Hoffryn back twenty feet and over a low wall.

D'Hoffryn no longer had his power source but he was still a demon and hard to hurt. He immediately jumped up ready to continue the fight. Anya however had no interest in a prolonged brawl. As D'Hoffryn stood up she materialised behind him and took off his head with her sword of hardened air. She tossed the sword aside and watched impassively as D'Hoffryn fell to the ground. His head and his body disintegrated as they were consumed in flames.

Anya held firmly to D'Hoffryn's amulet in her right hand and concentrated. After a few minutes she looked up. All of D'Hoffryn's vengeance demons had materialised in a circle around her. Altogether there were forty two demons and they were now all looking at her.

"It's been a long time since we had a new D'Hoffryn," said one, an ordinary looking man in a business suit. "Congratulations, I suppose you have orders for us."

Anya looked around the assembled vengeance demons. Yes, they're all here she thought. She spoke to Halfrek. "See, I told you I'd make a big splash Hallie," she said. Hallie said nothing, one of many demons still too surprised by what had happened to say anything.

"Put your amulets on the ground," Anya commanded. "I won't tell you twice," she added when the demons all hesitated. "Anybody tries to leave here with an amulet dies now," she warned sternly glaring at demon after demon.

Gradually the demons all complied. "Walk away, all of you. Try to be good people. Try to make up for everything you've done." Anya ordered. As the demons put their amulets on the ground they drifted away, stunned by what had happened. "Watch out for vampires," called Anya, "you're all human now."

Halfrek was the last one left. She still couldn't believe what had happened. "This is a test right?" she said. "You want to see who you can trust before you hand back the amulets. Well you can trust me. You know you can. We've always been friends. Even when nobody else liked you..." Halfrek broke off worried that she was saying the wrong thing.

Anya waved her hand and all of the amulets scattered around her on the ground grew bright and then dissolved into nothing.

"No!" screamed Halfrek rushing towards the amulets but stopping when she realised there was no longer anything there. She turned back to Anya but Anya had gone.

Anya appeared back in her apartment. Thanks Willow she thought, all debts are paid. That fake amulet had to be good to fool D'Hoffryn. She put D'Hoffryn's amulet around her neck. Her original amulet was still there, concealed by another of Willow's spells, powered by yet another amulet.

Anya slumped down in her chair. She'd never thought it would work, that she'd have to work out what to do next. She expected there to be some consequences for what she'd done. D'Hoffryn had been of some standing in the demon hierarchy. Somebody was going to be very annoyed about all this.


	5. Soul Mates

**Chapter Five - Soul Mates**

Buffy walked around the area of where she was sure those Christmas trees had been on sale that year. "It's around here somewhere," she said. "There's a hole..."

Buffy disappeared into the said hole. Giles and Vi rushed over and looked down. They were relieved to see that Buffy was all right. She was already on her feet dusting off her clothes. "Stay up there," she called. "I'll check this out."

"Take this," called Vi dropping an axe into the hole. Vi had insisted on joining the patrol and had chosen an axe to carry. It had seemed a silly choice to Buffy because a potential wasn't strong enough to wield it effectively. However as she picked up the axe and looked around Buffy was grateful that Vi had brought it along.

"Keep watch up there," Buffy called. "Don't let anything sneak up on you while you're looking down the hole. It is dark and there are still vampires around Sunnydale."

Buffy walked around the cave. It seemed to be part of a cave network. Goodness knows how far it leads she thought, probably right under the town and into those caves by the Hellmouth where I met the Master. Buffy heard movement behind her and turned quickly but saw nothing. She had learned to trust her instincts however and stood on guard with the axe with her back to a rock wall.

After a few moments and having failed to sneak up on Buffy the bad guy walked around the corner of one of the passages leading into the cave. And what a bad guy! This thing was so ugly it made a vampire look pretty even when it had its vamp face on. The interesting thing was it had fangs rather like a vampire.

As the creature stopped in front of her Buffy started her usual taunting, as usual not really considering whether it was a good idea. Generally Buffy liked the other guy to make the first move. Of course that sometimes meant taking the first hit.

"So what now? After failing to sneak up on me you're going to ugly me to death?" asked Buffy. The creature didn't reply, it only snarled. Perhaps it can't talk thought Buffy. I wonder what it is.

With great speed the creature moved forward and punched Buffy. Or it would have done had Buffy not moved very quickly. It struck hard enough to strike chips out of the rock face. Buffy moved aside as fast as she could but even so barely escaped the grasp of the creature as it struck again with its heavily clawed hand. She struck at it with the axe but only caught it a glancing blow as it dodged aside.

Now the creature was upon her, raining blow after blow. Buffy concentrated on keeping hold of the axe and avoiding or diverting the blows, which in the main she did successfully. Finally the creature achieved its first aim as it knocked the axe from her grasp. Buffy was ready however as she had seen what the creature was trying to do.

As the creature completed the swing of its fist to knock aside the axe, Buffy was ready to stab inside with the wooden stake which she brought out from her sleeve. She rammed it into the creature's heart, or at least where the heart of most creatures would be. This time however she hadn't bought the winning ticket. The creature stopped, stood back, plucked the stake out its chest and roared, apparently unhurt.

Buffy wasn't fazed by what had happened. Even with vampires it sometimes took more than a simple wooden stake to take them down. She remembered Kakistos and thought, this thing's far older than Kakistos. Now why do I think that?

Thinking never stopped the slayer from acting. Whilst the creature was busy roaring and showing off his immunity to a wooden stake Buffy had rolled aside and was facing the creature once again with the axe in her hands.

Suddenly there was movement and noise behind the creature as Vi dropped down into the hole. The creature turned at this new threat, forgetting for a moment the far greater danger in front of him. Buffy gave it no time to recover as she took its head off with the axe. To her surprise it immediately dusted. Guess it was some kind of vampire after all she thought.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The three Halliwell sisters and Willow had come downstairs to the front room to plan their next move. It was now getting late and Willow was worried that another meeting was coming to an end and nothing had been achieved. She seemed to be no closer to seeing Tara.

"OK, said Piper, "what are the alternatives?"

"Well," said Willow. "I came here because I heard that you'd been to a higher plane yourselves. I originally hoped you could take me to see Tara. I never thought you could bring Tara to see me."

"Could we do that?" asked Piper of her sisters. "You're part Whitelighter Paige, could you take us there, or at least take Willow to see Tara wherever she is?"

"I could take Willow to where we went before, the Whitelighter place," said Paige sounding doubtful. "But I don't know how to find a particular person up there. If I go to the Whitelighter place they'll probably jump on us straight away."

"We could use a spell to take us to a particular person," said Phoebe. "We've done it before."

"Yes," said Piper, "but not to a dead person. I'm worried that doing a spell to go to heaven or wherever is a fancy way of committing suicide. I'm not interested in buying a one way ticket." As she said this she saw the expression on Willow's face. Quite clearly Willow would be happy with a one way ticket if it took her to Tara. "Anyway we can't be sure where we'd end up if we tried that," she added.

Willow sat and listened to the Halliwell sisters talk through their problem, her problem she corrected. This is so like when the Scooby gang used to sit around and discuss how to deal with some big bad she thought, or when she and Tara...Willow broke off her thoughts and swallowed and concentrated on something else before she became too choked up to think straight.

"How do we know..." started Phoebe but stopped as she saw Leo's orbing light appear in the middle of the room. However Leo wasn't alone.

"Tara!" said Willow jumping up and putting her hands to her face as the tears began to flow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Faith finished climbing up the emergency ladder and sat down on the fire escape landing. She hadn't seen any humans out and about for the past hour. Nobody to rescue for the moment she thought. She glanced at her watch and worked out that she'd been in LA for about five hours. It seems a lot longer she thought.

The watch was her watch now. On the way to LA she'd wondered about getting clothes, money, food and all that but it hadn't been a problem. She taken a lot of loot off the vampires she'd killed. One group of three had a truck load of stuff which she'd taken over after dusting them and had parked nearby. She wouldn't be in want of anything all the time this darkness lasted.

Since Faith had arrived in LA she must have killed thirty vampires and demons she thought. Word was going to be out that the Slayer's in town. She knew she should be worried but she wasn't. Let the demons and vamps do the worrying. THE SLAYER'S IN TOWN! YEAH!

Faith had deliberately let it be known who she was. I can't be everywhere she had decided. If I can make the demons and vamps watch their backs they won't have so much time to kill people. They might hold off on attacking a few girls in case it's the slayer. Anyway she thought, it's about time I went to see Angel. He'll know what's causing all this and Wesley will probably be researching ways to stop it. I should work with them.

Suddenly Faith spotted movement below. A running girl and a group of four, no five people or things were chasing her through the streets towards the square directly beneath Faith's position. Faith jumped up and slid quickly down the ladder towards the ground.

The girl ran though the square and into an ally on the other side. The five pursuers came behind, somewhat strung out by the chase. Faith allowed the girl to go past and then came out of the darkness and hit the first pursuer. Her first thought was that it was a human and she pulled her punch. Then she realised that it was one of the creatures who had been hunting down the potential slayers.

They may have been human once Faith thought but they're monsters now. She stopped restraining herself and set about killing. She took out the next two arrivals before she realised she was not alone. The running girl had returned to fight by her side. She'd taken care of the first enemy who had only been stunned and then took on one of the remaining two killers as Faith disposed of his last companion.

Easier than killing vamps thought Faith, much easier. She looked at the bodies lying around and found that she had no regrets. They looked like five human bodies lying on the ground but when alive the eyes had been empty and stitched up, even though they didn't seem to have any problem seeing.

"Thanks for the help," said the other girl. Faith looked at her. She was attractive with long dark hair, maybe a Latino background and perhaps even shorter than Buffy she thought. A trained fighter, which is what Faith would expect if the girl was a potential slayer.

"That's OK, you did pretty well yourself," said Faith. "They're not exactly vamps. You're good. You could probably have taken them all out without my help."

"Oh, I know I could have taken them," said the girl. "I just thought having them chase me through the streets was the quickest way to find you. I heard there was a slayer in town. The description said dark hair so I knew it was you Faith."

"I don't think we've met." said Faith.

"No we haven't," said the other girl holding out her hand. "Kennedy, Kennedy the Vampire Slayer."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's it," said Buffy, looking over Giles' shoulder at the illustration in the book. "It's even uglier than that in real life, or real death. What is it?"

Giles explained that the creature was indeed a vampire, an ancient ferociously powerful and savage vampire called a Turok-Han, a sort of Uber-vampire. It was much older than the normal vampire. It was a sort of Neanderthal vampire. It had always been assumed that they were a myth or at least that they had died out. Reputedly vampires feared them.

"Oh no," said Xander. "Buffy's the one the vampires are afraid of, well, most vampires anyway." He didn't pursue the subject further however as Buffy glared at him.

"So it shows up now, just when The First is stirring. Not a co-incidence I think," said Buffy.

"I agree," said Giles. "It's more than likely that the Turok-Han is here as an agent of The First. There may be more."

"Um, did you slay it?" asked Annabelle nervously.

"Oh yes, thanks to Vi. She was very brave." replied Buffy who explained about Vi's sudden intervention to distract the vampire.

Vi gave a quick guilty look at Giles who knew very well that she had slipped when trying to see into the cave but had said nothing. "She took its head off with the axe," she said. "One sweep and it turned to dust."

"But if we meet any more we must remember an ordinary stake won't kill it," said Buffy. "I put a stake right into its chest and it pulled it out again. But the good news is it isn't any cleverer than the average dumb vampire. It may be even dumber."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn Summers was walking home. She knew Buffy wouldn't approve but she had thought it urgent to do something quickly to make the house secure, so after Buffy had gone on patrol she had persuaded Xander to give her a lift over to Anya's place. Meanwhile Xander had gone on to try to see Amy.

Both Dawn and Xander thought they had a better chance of getting Anya's help if Xander wasn't involved. Dawn was convinced that Anya still had strong feelings for Xander but she was equally convinced that Anya would be the last person to admit that those feelings were other than ones of vengeance.

The problem was that Anya wasn't home. Dawn had waited a half hour but then decided to go back home. Besides she thought Anya might be on the other side of the world on some vengeance job. I could be here for days.

It was on her way back home that Dawn had run into Amy who had also not been at home and had not yet seen Xander. Dawn therefore explained about The First and the need for protection at the Summers' home.

"I might be on the hit list of The First as well," said Amy. "It knows I work with you guys after that spell with the coven the other night."

"Perhaps your coven could do a protection spell for your place as well," suggested Dawn.

"What coven?" asked Amy. "After what happened they all left town. I'm the only one left. I'll have to do all the spell casting myself."

"Are you staying?" asked Dawn.

"Oh yes," replied Amy. "Once you've been a rat very little frightens you any more. Besides I've lived here all my life. You can't be a native of Sunnydale without being threatened by nameless evil monsters from time to time."

Amy agreed to pop by when she had sorted out a suitable spell and first applied it to her home. Before she went on her way she told Dawn about her deal with Anya over the Magic Box.

"So you see I've no intention of being chased out of here," Amy concluded.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn arrived home to find that both Buffy and Xander had returned and the gang had started researching without her. She insisted on being given a full account of what had happened.

"Turok-Han," said Dawn enthusiastically looking at the picture and the article in Giles' book. "That's something new we can research. They can't be all that tough or they wouldn't have disappeared. I bet they've got some special weakness."

"I think their special weakness is the same as their strength," said Giles. "They have more animal and less humanity than a regular vampire. Hence greater strength and speed but less intelligence and ability to communicate. Like a lot of extinct creatures."

"Now that's a word I like," said Xander. "Extinct, at least as far as vampires are concerned."

Molly and Annabelle exchanged glances, impressed. This was not the reaction they expected from people who had just found out about the threat from a new or rather old type of monster.

Buffy took Dawn aside to ask for an explanation for her trip out. When she had explained Buffy surprised Dawn by raising no complaint beyond a frown. In fact all Buffy said was "You'd better tell Xander you've spoken to Amy. Leave a message for Anya on her answer phone."

"Demons have answer phones now?" asked Dawn.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow found she couldn't move. She'd said "Tara" when she first saw Tara appear and her mouth had then dried up. She literally couldn't speak, she just stood and stared. Even had she been able to she didn't want to do anything to break the spell. Spell? Was it real? Was it really Tara or was it some deception? Was...

"Willow?" asked Tara. "Is it really you? Are you...are y y you all right? Are you well?"

As she spoke Tara moved towards Willow and, without her knowledge Willow's feet moved her towards Tara. Suddenly they both moved and flung their arms around each other, hugging as tightly as they could. Willow was certain, this was Tara, this was really Tara. Tara knew it was her Willow. Whatever had happened since that horrible day in Buffy's house she would always be 'her' Willow.

Willow and Tara stood and hugged each other in silence for a very long time. Both had their eyes closed and neither noticed that the room had quietly emptied around them. The Halliwells went into the kitchen for a family conference and to question Leo about what had happened to result in Tara being produced so dramatically.

"Well done Leo, you did the right thing," said Paige.

"That's pretty obvious isn't it," said Phoebe.

"I hope you're right," said Leo. "In the end it seemed to be the best thing to do. I hope it all turns out all right."

"What happened?" asked Piper. "Did you persuade the elders to change their minds? Grams said you were talking to them for us."

"Not exactly," said Leo. "My information was a little out of date." Leo explained that he had been briefed all about Willow Rosenberg by the Elders and by Alec, a Whitelighter who worked with the Devon coven in England. Alec had known the basic background about Willow and what she had done and about the help she had received from the coven to try to get over the dark magic.

What neither the Elders nor the coven had expected was that Willow would make such a good recovery from the dark magic and in such a short time. Since the day when she had been persuaded to stop by her friends she hadn't touched dark magic again. This was very unusual.

"So the elders have been keeping a close watch on her since then?" said Phoebe. "How do they do that? Do they watch us the whole time?"

"The watching was done covertly by a Whitelighter who had some previous knowledge of Sunnydale and the people involved," said Leo. "And no, the elders don't monitor your every move. This was just a special case in view of what had happed."

"Anyway it appears Willow was correct in thinking she had a soul link with Tara," continued Leo. "Tara hadn't moved on and we think her link with Willow has played a vital part in the healing process."

As things stood there had been an impasse explained Leo. Tara should move on but would not because she would have to leave Willow behind, maybe permanently. Because of the soul link neither the Elders nor anybody else could force the issue.

"So what happens now?" asked Phoebe, "how long can she stay? Phoebe had in mind the limit that applied to their mother and grandmother at Piper's wedding. She was already thinking ahead. How would Willow react when Tara had to go?

"No, no limit," said Leo smiling. "She can stay, well...permanently."

"She's been resurrected?" asked Paige. "After all you said!"

"The Elders have decided that Tara is a perfect candidate to be a Whitelighter. The soul link and her help in Willow's recovery proves that. Tara's agreed to become, if fact has already become, a Whitelighter," Leo explained.

"And Willow's a powerful witch who very definitely needs a Whitelighter," said Piper.

"Who needs this Whitelighter," corrected Paige.


	6. Under Siege

_Authors Note: The story now links with Angel series 4. As indicated at the beginning of the story my version of Angel up to this point is somewhat different. Another difference is that Lilah has not been killed._

**Chapter Six - Under Siege**

Angel Investigations were in the lobby of the Hyperion hotel debating what to do about Angelus.

"What are we waiting for?" asked Connor. "Why aren't we going after him?"

"No need," replied Wesley, "he'll be back."

"How do you know?" asked Fred.

"We're the ones he wants to hurt. The people closest to Angel," explained Cordelia.

"I say we dust him before he gets the chance," stated Connor forcibly.

"That's just the kind of reckless thinking that allowed Angelus to double back on us," said Wesley. "From now on we all stay close."

"And do what? If Angelus is coming back for us, we can't just be waiting for him to drop by. We need to do something. Board up the windows, make it safe somehow," said Fred, speaking quickly. "Don't you think?" she continued more slowly looking around at everybody.

"Won't make a difference," said Gunn. "If he wants in nothing's gonna stop him."

"Cordy, why didn't it work? The spell to bring Angel's soul back, did we do something wrong?" asked Fred.

Cordelia shrugged. "I don't know," she said.

"Yeah and how did you get so fooled Lorne?" asked Gunn. "Reading Angelus wrong like that. You were so sure he was Angel."

"Don't put this on him," said Cordelia. "I'm the one who let Angelus out. It's my fault."

"Wow, I must have been in jail too long, my hearing's going. Did I actually hear Queen C say those three little words: "It's my fault?"" asked Faith. Faith, with Kennedy beside her was stood in the entrance to the hotel. "I never thought I'd live that long."

Everybody got to their feet. Gunn, Fred, Lorne and Connor did not recognise the new arrivals but clearly they knew Cordelia. The four of them looked to Cordelia for an introduction.

"As if thing's weren't bad enough," said Cordelia. "We now have psycho slayer come to visit. Get fed up with the redemption thing Faith? Come to kill a few more humans or do a little more betrayal? I assume you broke out of jail."

"Break out or die inside," said Faith. "Not ready to die yet."

"Could somebody...?" asked Fred.

"This is Faith the vampire slayer," said Wesley. "Last seen three years ago serving a long sentence for murder."

"And this is Kennedy the vampire slayer," said Faith.

"Did something happen to Buffy?" asked Cordelia alarmed.

"No," said Faith, "or not as far as I know. Kennedy will explain."

"I was chosen about eighteen months ago," explained Kennedy. "I was told that Buffy had been killed but I was told later she was alive. My Watcher couldn't figure it out."

"Willow brought her back," said Cordelia.

"Back, as in back from the dead back?" asked Kennedy

"Uh huh", replied Cordelia nodding.

"CPR again?" asked Faith.

"No, we understand she successfully completed a resurrection spell a few months after Buffy died," explained Wesley.

"Seems I was right not to go straight to Sunnydale," said Faith. "Willow sounds like one scary witch these days."

Faith then introduced Wesley to Kennedy as her former watcher, "who she betrayed," added Cordelia. Cordelia was introduced as a school friend of Buffy's who had helped Buffy in Sunnydale.

"I don't know the rest of them," explained Faith.

Wesley introduced Gunn, Fred, Lorne and Connor to Faith and Kennedy. Naturally Faith was surprised to meet a son of Angel and this lead to a full explanation of Connor's background.

Wesley asked what Faith had meant about dying in prison and she explained. Kennedy explained about the killing of her watcher. The watcher had previously told her that in an emergency she should go to Sunnydale to join up with Buffy or to go see Faith. She had arrived in LA on her way to Sunnydale when she had learnt of another slayer in town.

"Jaw, jaw, jaw," said Connor. "You guys aren't going to do anything about Angelus are you? Well I am."

Connor started to leave the hotel but Faith moved very fast and pinned him to the wall before he got two paces. Everybody who had not seen a slayer in action before was suitably impressed.

"You're going to wait here until we decide what we going to do about Angelus." said Faith giving Connor the stare. Connor was startled by Faith's speed and strength. He had heard about slayers but the actuality was much more impressive that the stories.

"Let's have the full story then," Faith asked turning back to the group. "Why's Angelus free? What happened?"

Wesley, aided by Fred, explained the sequence of events including what they knew about the Beast and the darkness. Kennedy interrupted to ask more about Angel/Angelus. Connor sat and sulked.

"OK," said Faith. "Nobody's going to kill Angel. We're going to capture him and give him back his soul. Cordy, you contact Willow. She did it last time. She's the best person to do it again."

"Wes," Faith continued, "See what you can find out about these weird guys who are killing off potential slayers and watchers. Kennedy and I'll give you a description."

"Perhaps I should contact Giles and the Watchers' Council," suggested Wesley.

"Maybe," agreed Faith. "But hold off until you've seen what else you can find out first then we'll talk about it." I need to build up some credit with the good guys before anybody contacts Buffy, Giles or the Council Faith thought. She realised that Wesley might go ahead and contact them anyway but she'd just have to face up to that if it happened.

For his part Wesley knew very well why Faith didn't want to announce to Buffy and the Council that she was out. For his own reasons he agreed with her, at least for the time being. Buffy would not be pleased that they'd arranged for Angelus to return and the last thing they needed at the moment was another Council Special Ops team in LA. Still he thought, if necessary I could talk to them without saying anything about Faith.

"Gunn, these are your streets," continued Faith. "See if you can find out where this Beast is hanging out. As soon as we've dealt with Angelus we'll go after it."

"I'm on it," said Gunn getting up to leave.

"What are your orders for me oh mighty slayer?" asked Connor sarcastically.

"Do what Kennedy tells you to do," replied Faith. "If you think I'm cranky just see what happens when you wind her up. Kennedy, take care of security for this place. From the roof, to the sewers, to the front door. Angelus will be back. I want to be ready to trap him. Nets might be good."

"I'll get onto that safety spell," said Lorne. When Faith gave him a blank look he explained what he meant and she gave him the go ahead. "But be ready to nix it if it doesn't test out right. I don't want anything that'll stop a slayer fighting."

Fred coughed as she was the only one who had not been given an assignment. Wesley responded immediately.

"Fred's been researching the Beast. I think it best that she continue with that," he suggested.

"Sure," said Faith. "Got any food here? I've been slaying for hours and I'm hungry and...well hungry and hungry." She glanced at Cordelia who couldn't help smiling. She was the only other person who understood Faith's reference. Better days thought Cordelia. If only we hadn't grown any older. They all got up and set to work.

As Lorne went to pick up the phone Fred went past him. "So that's a slayer," he said to her, "gotta say, I'm impressed, glad she's on our side."

"Let's hope she stays on our side, this time," said Cordelia quietly to Wesley.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow woke up and immediately looked for Tara. All day yesterday she'd kept a grip on Tara as if scared she was going to disappear again. Since they'd not left the hotel bedroom the whole day Willow's grip had been mainly combined with snuggles, kissing and other more energetic moments.

She's still here, SHE'S STILL HERE, thought Willow as she had done so many times before. I'm never going to get used to this she thought. Willow snuggled up close to Tara and quickly fell asleep again.

A couple of hours later Tara woke up and felt the call. She got out of bed and quickly dressed before leaning over and kissing Willow on the forehead, deliberately waking her up. "I've got a call," she explained. "I'll be back as soon as I can." With that Tara orbed away.

Willow felt bereft. Noooo! she thought but then pulled herself together. She won't be long. I've just got to get used to this. She'll be back soon. Leo and Tara had explained about the duties of a Whitelighter. It's like a job, we can't be together every minute of every day she thought although at the same time a part of her was mentally jumping up and down and asking why not, why not?

Willow decided to get up. It was lunchtime after all. The bed was suddenly much colder. She decided to get out her laptop and look at her e-mails.

Tara arrived at where she had been summoned and was surprised to see Paige waiting for her. Tara looked about her, it looked like night time even though Tara knew it was about midday. Then she remembered. "Oh yes, you did say you'd be checking out the darkness in LA," said Tara. "Any luck?"

"I got here yesterday and it's been like this all the time," said Paige. "It's like the middle of the night all day. And it's not just the darkness, the city's crawling with vampires and demons. Whatever started all this is attracting all sorts of evil."

"So how can I help?" asked Tara thinking what can I do that Leo can't and why not ask your sisters?

"Leo and my sisters have to clean up some warlock activity in Oakland today so I thought of you," said Paige as if reading Tara's mind. "You're still a witch right? I thought we could do a tracking spell to home in on whatever's causing all this."

Tara realised that although born with a strong witch birthright Paige had not been a practicing witch for more than a couple of years and normally had her sisters and Leo for support. "We could do the 'Golden Arrow'" she suggested. "That should work. It's slow but it's reliable and it always works best when evil is strong and this looks to be very strong indeed."

"I've got a vanquishing spell all prepared for when we find it," said Paige, "what do you think?" she continued and handed over her written out copy of the spell.

Tara read the spell and smiled. "Do you do all your spells in rhyme?" she asked. "It's very good." Tara handed back the paper.

"You mean you don't," asked Paige surprised. "I was told you had to. All that time I spent searching for awful rhymes and I didn't even have to."

"You probably do have to," said Tara. "If that's what your sisters do, what your mother did, then it's probably necessary to get the most out of your gift. I'll try it myself when I do the tracking spell. It might make my spells more powerful."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

E-Mail

From: Dawn

To: Willow

Afraid I've got nothing more about Whitelighters but I've got very good news. Giles is back! He's staying with us for now. He brought three girls with him, all about my age or a little older. They're potential slayers. Apparently the First Evil has been sending some really weird guys all over the world killing potential slayers. Giles brought them here so Buffy could protect them. He says there are more on the way.

Giles says the First Evil blew up the Watchers' Council. They're all dead. You should be careful. The First Evil is incorporeal when it pretends to be a dead person but it's got all these bad guys working for it so be careful. Giles says it can pretend to be anybody who is dead or was dead at any time so it can pretend to be Buffy or Angel or anyone like that but it won't be corporeal.

Oh, Cordy phoned. She needs to contact you urgently. I gave her your e-mail address so you'll probably be hearing from her.

All the very best on your quest.

Love from everyone

Dawn

Another day at the office in good old Sunnydale thought Willow. Whilst reading the e-mail she had realised that this First Evil could probably pretend to be Tara. She'd just have to keep kissing her she decided, just to be sure it's the real Tara. She clicked on the other e-mail:

E-Mail

From: Cordelia

To: Willow

**VERY URGENT**

Dear Willow,

I never thought I'd find myself doing this all those years ago in computer geeks class but I'm now e-mail girl. Actually my friend Fred is making sure this goes through all right.

I tried to ring you but Dawn said you're on some sort of a quest. I'm sure it's important but so is this. Angelus is back. Angel's lost his soul, well somebody stole it actually.

Guess who else is back. Faith! She gave us some story about weird guys going around the world killing slayers and said she had to get out of prison. She hasn't changed, well she hasn't killed anybody yet but she's just like Buffy, giving orders to everybody to save Angel, as if we weren't going to do that anyway.

I was going to contact you even if she hadn't suggested it. You are the only person alive to give Angel his soul back and as I recall we didn't know where it was then either so I hope you can do it again.

Please come as soon as possible. Address and telephone number below.

See you soon

Cordelia

E-Mail

From: Willow

To: Dawn

I read your last e-mail this morning. Good to know Giles is back. Thanks for all of the other information.

You wouldn't believe the things that have happened but it's not really suitable to put it in an e-mail. I'm happy and well and hope to see you soon. I've got to go see Cordy in LA to give some witchy help to a little problem that she has. I hope it won't take too long then I'll be able to spend some time back in Sunnydale.

All my love to everyone (give Giles my best wishes)

Willow

Willow had thought long and hard about whether to mention Tara in the e-mail or whether to telephone Dawn or Buffy but she found herself reluctant to do so. She wanted to show them Tara, not just include it in a short letter or call. They're going to be so surprised and happy she thought.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gunn drove in silence, looking through the window at the pouring rain. Just what we need he thought. At least it seems to be keeping most of the vampires indoors. He pulled up to the kerb and looked through the nearside window. A woman left the shelter of the nearby building and quickly crossed the sidewalk to get in the front passenger seat.

"Miss me?" asked Gwen as she did up her seat belt.

"Yeah, of course," said Gunn convincing nobody. He received a dirty look from Gwen in return. Why do I bother she thought?

Gunn pulled away from the kerb. He had done a lot of visiting and ringing around over the past couple of days and Gwen was the only one to say she might know where the Beast was. Nobody else had seen it or at least nobody admitted to seeing it. He hadn't mentioned Angelus as he didn't want to advertise what had happened. Mostly he got no reply. Hope they've just skipped town he thought. There must have been a lot of casualties in the last few days.

"You're sure he's down there?" Gunn asked breaking the awkward silence in the car.

Gwen shrugged. "All I know is he was in that warehouse two days ago. He could be anywhere now. Why are you looking for him anyway? You all got your butts kicked the last time you saw him and that was before Angel changed sides."

"We've got help, a lot of help," said Gunn without explaining further. "Anyway how did you hear about Angel?"

"It's all over town," she said. "I hear things, that's why you called me remember."

"I didn't expect you to be there. I thought you were leaving," answered Gunn.

"I was," replied Gwen, "but then I figured this being LA there was going to be a lot of looting. I plan on being a looter not a lootee."

A few minutes later Gunn pulled up across the road and down the street from the warehouse in question. "That the one?" he asked. Gwen nodded.

Gunn sat in silence looking at the warehouse. "So what do we do if it's here, ask for its autograph?" Gwen asked.

Suddenly the side window was smashed and a hand reached into the car to pull Gwen out. Gunn immediately leapt out of the car and found himself in a fight for his life with two vampires. Great he thought, but at least it's stopped raining.

Gwen managed to remove her glove as she was being pulled out of the car. The fight quickly ended after that as she shocked the vampire holding her and then shot electric bolts into the two others attacking Gunn. All three vampires lay on the ground. They were all conscious but their bodies were out of their control as they lay there twitching.

Gwen fed electricity into the first vampire until it turned to dust. She then did the same to a second. She was about to do the same to a third when Gunn stopped her. "Let's see what he's got to say first." he suggested, intending to see what the vampire knew about the Beast and Angelus.

"No time," replied Gwen, "into the car quick." Gunn looked up to see that the Beast had come out of the warehouse and was now coming towards them.

Gunn started the car and had just decided to risk driving straight on into the Beast when it stopped about fifty yards away. "Who are they?" asked Gwen.

Two women were standing in the road about ten yards in front of the Beast. "Where did they come from?" asked Gunn. He put the car in reverse and slowly backed it down the street to give him a little more room in case the Beast started coming again.

"You shouldn't be here," said Tara to the Beast. "This is not your world."

The beast put his head back and laughed. "My place is where my master sends me. No-one else can send me away."

"Oh really," said Paige, "do you want to take a bet on that?" Paige unfolded a piece of paper and began reciting her banishment spell. The Beast realised what she was doing and leapt forward at her. He ran straight through her as she orbed away and reappeared ten yards behind him where she immediately started reciting the spell again.

The frustrated Beast turned to attack Tara but she also orbed away to once more stand next to Paige. Paige finished her spell but it had no effect. "I was afraid of that," she said. "Power of one not enough for this beastie."

"We'd better talk to your sisters," said Tara. Paige and Tara orbed away. The Beast looked around but did not see the two women anymore. He did however see Gunn and Gwen sat in their car down the street.

"Go," shouted Gwen but Gunn didn't need to be told. He swung the car around and quickly had it up to top speed. A quick look in the mirror showed that the Beast was not following.

"Was that your new help?" asked Gwen, "because the light show was pretty impressive but it did nothing to the Beast."

"Nothing to do with me," he said. "Never seen 'em before. Nice to know some of the good guys are coming out and not just the demons and vampires."

"If they are good guys," said Gwen. "They haven't done much good yet."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anya got out of her car in front of the Summers house. She deliberately avoided teleporting everywhere now. In fact she'd decided not to use any demon powers at all unless she really had to. I wonder how long that'll last she thought. Suddenly she laughed out loud. I'm just like Willow she thought, giving up my power because it's bad for me.

In truth Anya hadn't given up anything any more than Willow had in the long run. She still had both amulets hidden on her person, as well as fake amulets to deceive anybody looking for them. She didn't dare leave herself helpless, not in this town. She reached the front door and rang the bell.

Dawn opened the door. "Anya, come in," said Dawn ushering Anya inside. "Xander's not here, he's probably at home."

"I'm here to see you," said Anya. "You left me a message." The message had been from Dawn on the answer phone and asked that she contact Buffy or Dawn. It had sounded urgent and Anya was a little miffed that Dawn seemed to have forgotten all about it.

"Oh yes, of course," said Dawn. She led the way from the hallway into the front room. There were two young women already there eating sandwiches and watching TV. Dawn introduced Anya to Vi and Annabelle.

Dawn explained about the potentials and what was happening and about how the Watchers' Council had been blown up. She had hoped that Anya or Amy might be able to carry out some witchcraft to protect the Summers house from something similar.

"I'm not a witch Dawn," said Anya. "I'm a demon."

Vi and Annabelle jumped up in alarm. Dawn quickly explained that Anya was basically human and was a friend, a friendly demon. "She's been helping us for years," she said.

"I know you're a demon," said Dawn. "But you know lots and lots about magic. Amy's done a protection spell. Could you have a look at it? I'd like to trust Amy but I'd feel better if you checked out what she's done." Dawn handed Anya a sheet of paper giving details of the spell that Amy had carried out.

"I've also sent details in an e-mail to Willow but I don't know when she'll be able to reply," said Dawn.

Anya, as usual, responded to the flattery. Dawn knew her well. Anya agreed to look through the spell before she left. "You said Giles is back?" she asked. "Where is he?"

"He said he was going to look through the Magic Box, he wanted to..." Dawn stopped as the front door bell rang and went to answer it. It was Giles.

Anya was pleased to see Giles and gave him a hug. "You're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you," she said. Giles had left Sunnydale a few days after the events following Tara's death. He had not fully recovered then from the effects of the big fight with Willow. Now he had.

Anya and Giles went into the kitchen and brought each other up to date. Anya explained about her deal with Amy and suggested that the three of them become equal partners, one third each. Giles agreed to think about it after he'd spoken to Amy.

Annabelle rushed into the kitchen followed by Vi. "There's one of those ugly old vampires outside," she said. "It's just like the one in your book Mr Giles, you know, like the one Buffy killed."

"It's just the same as the other one." said Vi from behind her.

Giles jumped up and went into the front room. Dawn already had the weapons chest open and gave Giles an axe. She gave Vi a sword and Annabelle a crossbow and two bolts. She picked out another crossbow for herself.

By now everybody was clustered around the windows.

"What'll we do without Buffy?" asked Annabelle who sounded very worried.

"What's it doing?" asked Vi.

"It seems to be waiting for something," said Giles. "Remember, it's a vampire. It can't come in without an invitation."

"That sort of vampire can," said Anya seeing it for the first time. She'd never seen a Turok-Han before but she knew what it was and she knew a few things about it.

"What'll we do," asked Dawn. "It might be waiting to attack Buffy when she gets back."

"Buffy can handle it," said Vi. "She killed the other one OK."

"Exactly," said Giles. "But it seems it's got help this time." As he spoke the others noticed what he was referring to, six Bringers had joined the Turok-Han outside. "Dawn, check out the back. Vi, watch the stairs in case any of them get in up there."

"They're coming in, they're coming in," screamed Annabelle.


	7. Into the Light

**Chapter Seven - Into the Light**

Willow had finished packing away her things. Tara had been gone a lot over the past two days and she was wondering whether to leave her a note and go to LA when suddenly in front of her appeared the now familiar light show followed by Tara herself, in the flesh. Without saying a word Willow stepped forward and took Tara in her arms.

Ten minutes later, after the essential kissing and hugging Tara explained to Willow that she and Paige had now tracked down the Beast.

"Well I'm going to LA anyway to see Cordy and do the spell to give Angel his soul back," Willow explained. She'd briefly explained about Cordelia's e-mail in between snuggles during one of Tara's brief return visits.

"I can take you there quicker than regular transport," said Tara smiling. "We can come back for your stuff afterwards." Tara explained about her agreement to go back to LA with the Halliwells. "They'll do one of their 'Power of Three' spells to get rid of the Beast. I'd like us to be there as well in case they need any magical backup. There are a lot of vampires and demons roaming LA in the dark at the moment. The more power we have the better our chance of getting rid of it."

"What is it, where did it come from?" asked Willow. "I wonder if it had anything to do with Angel losing his soul."

"It comes from a demon dimension," explained Tara, "rather like Glory although from a different one. When we spoke to it, it referred to its master. I don't know who or what that is."

"Could it be this First Evil that Dawn referred to?" asked Willow.

"It might be, I just don't know," said Tara. "I get most of my information from Leo. He's my ...well I suppose he's a sort of mentor. Neither he nor the Elders know any more about it. I do know we need to destroy the Beast to get rid of the darkness. If we don't get rid of it soon the darkness will spread."

"That'll be good news for vampires and demons," said Willow. "I dread to think what might happen if it gets as far as the Hellmouth."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was night time at Sunnydale bus station. A bus stopped and opened its doors. A couple of people left the bus. "Watch your step," said the bus driver as a third person, a young African-American girl left. She was wearing denim overalls and carrying a backpack.

The young girl looked around and walked forward between parked buses to the bus terminal building. The girl looked at the building but the doors were closed and no lights were on. She looked around anxiously and went to the nearby pay phone, picked up the phone book and started flipping through it. She got to the correct part of the book for Summers only to find that the relevant page had been torn out. She looked up from the book to see a black-robed, hooded, eyeless man approaching her.

The girl threw the book at the man and turned to run, but then saw two more such men coming towards her with their distinctive knives in their hands. She backed up against a wall, terrified but determined that she would at least get in a few good kicks.

Just then, the pair of Bringers between the buses were lifted off the ground and were sent flying apart, revealing Buffy, who had thrown them to the ground. The third Bringer ran away but was hit in the back by a crossbow bolt fired by Molly causing him to stagger and fall.

Buffy's two opponents now attacked her. One lunged at her with his knife, but Buffy grabbed his hand and stabbed the other Bringer with the knife. The stabbed Bringer doubled over in pain, and Buffy kicked him to the ground. Buffy continued to wrestle with the other Bringer, ultimately breaking his neck.

Buffy walked up to the newcomer, who was still shaking. "Rona, right?" she asked, offering her hand. Rona nodded and took Buffy's hand. "I just got word you were arriving," explained Buffy.

"You're her!" said Rona.

"She's the Slayer all right," said Molly.

"You know, I thought, uh, they told me I'd be safe here," said Rona.

"Right, well, you are," said Buffy. "I mean, you will be...safer...with me and the gang around."

"That's good," replied Rona who then turned to Molly and examined her crossbow. "Nice. Hope you got one of those for me somewhere."

Buffy started to walk away. Rona walked beside her. Molly followed along behind keeping hold of her reloaded crossbow and with eyes open for any more bringers.

"Next time you're attacked..." began Buffy.

"You saying I'm gonna get attacked again?" asked Rona, "In that case I very definitely want one of those bows, and a few other things besides."

"Welcome to the Hellmouth," said Buffy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fred sat in the office at the Hyperion continuing her research into the Beast. Wesley had gone back to his apartment to fetch some more books. Cordelia had gone with him to help rather than staying to research with Fred. Cordelia never enjoyed book research. If it didn't come up on the net she soon got bored.

Fred got up and went over to the bookcase muttering to herself. "Now if I were a runic transcription guide I would be...ah." She found the book shelved wrong.

"Talking to yourself, Fred?" asked Angelus. Fred, alarmed, turned round and saw Angelus standing in the door to the office. "There's a lot of that going around."

"You can't hurt me," said Fred with as much bravado as she could muster. "We did a no-demon-violence thingy."

"Oh, the sanctuary spell," said Angelus with no concern whatever. "Shucks, oh, wait a minute, I think I—" He pulled a charm out of his pocket and twirled it around as he walked toward Fred. "Oh, yeah, kinda thought you pesky P.I.'s would be humming that old tune, so I picked up a little something. Something that lets me be as demony as I wanna be."

"I don't believe you," said Fred desperately. Where are those Slayers? Where is everybody she thought?

Angelus took the book out of Fred's hand and pressed her back to the wall, slamming the book against the wall behind her. "How 'bout now?" he asked.

"What do you want?" asked Fred.

"Maybe I just miss you," he suggested. "Well, since you brought it up, let's talk Beastmaster. Whaddaya got?"

Fred shook her head. "Nothing," she said.

"Come on, Fred," said Angelus looking at the papers all over her desk. "All this raw material, Brainiac like you, you must have a theory."

"If I did, you're the last person I'd tell," said Fred defiantly.

"What about Cordy then? Any interesting visions?" asked Angelus. Fred kept silent.

"Well, all right then," he replied putting the book down and walking over to the desk. "I guess I'll figure it out myself, huh? Let's see." He gathered up the papers and a book from the desk. "I'll take these, and this. Thanks for nothing."

"I do know one thing. You're out of your league. What you're up against—he'll make you its bitch just like the Beast. So, if you're gonna kill me, get it over with," said Fred. Suddenly she really looked at Angelus's charm for the first time and noticed the 'Made in China' stamp on it.

Fred grabbed a glass pitcher and smashed it over Angelus's head and then grabbed her tranq gun. She shot at Angelus, but he ducked and the dart went into the wall behind him. He rolled on the floor toward the door and ran out of the office, with Fred in pursuit.

Immediately outside the door Angelus ran into a cross fire from two dart guns, one fired by Connor and the other by Kennedy. He dodged one but the other stuck in his right arm.

Angelus immediately pulled the dart from his arm but realised he had to get away quickly before he was slowed by the tranquiliser. Dodging a further dart, this time fired by Fred he threw the book and papers at Connor and Kennedy and turned towards the door.

Angelus turned straight into Faith's fist and fell to the ground. Fast, but already a little slower than usual he tried to roll with the blow back to his feet. A net fell over him, tossed there by Kennedy. As he struggled to throw it off, Connor fired another dart into him from point blank range. This time the dart took full effect and Angelus passed out.

Connor and Kennedy fetched the chains and secured Angelus. Lorne arrived while this was being done and saw Connor and Kennedy take Angelus away to the basement to be locked up.

"Sorry we left him in there with you for so long," said Faith to Fred. "We thought we'd see if he said anything interesting."

"He could have killed me!" said Fred annoyed. "Anyway once he's got his soul back he'll tell you all you need to know. If his amulet had been real I think I'd be dead."

Lorne took the amulet and sniffed as he realised it was a cheap fake. "No way doll," he said. "There's no amulet made that could protect him from that spell. If there was, my place would have been out of business inside a week."

Cordelia and Wesley arrived laden with books. Fred happily told them of the capture of Angelus. "After last time nobody should talk to him, or better yet listen to him," said Wesley.

"I'll ask Kennedy to watch him," said Faith. "He doesn't know anything to use against her."

"I'll ask her," said Cordelia, "and I'll warn her about what he's like." Cordelia started to leave the room to go to the basement.

"Any word from Willow?" Faith asked Cordelia as she left.

"She's in San Francisco," replied Cordelia. "Her e-mail said she'd be here in a couple of days." Cordelia continued on her way to the basement.

"We've got an orb of Thesulah in here somewhere," said Wesley opening the large bag that he had brought with him.

"So that'll just leave us to deal with the Beast and the darkness, those guys looking to kill the slayers and gazillions of vampires and evil demons," said Lorne. "Things are looking up." The odd thing was he really meant it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In a street in LA near the warehouse where the Beast had last been seen three flashes of light appeared. They dissolved to reveal Tara with Willow, Leo with Piper and Paige with Phoebe.

"This is the place," said Paige. "It came out of that warehouse. Let's check it out."

The six walked over to the warehouse. Leo and the sisters went inside. Willow and Tara remained on guard outside.

"Did your elders or Leo say anything else about the First Evil?" asked Willow. "Like what it is and how to destroy it."

"They said it's always been here and it can't be destroyed. Something woke it up recently. They don't know how to put it back to sleep," said Tara.

"Oh my god!" said Willow. "It must have been me, when I...I..." Willow put her hands over her mouth. In all the euphoria of having Tara back Willow had forgotten to say anything about what she had done after Tara died. She'll hate me she thought. She'll leave...

"I know all about what you did," said Tara taking hold of Willow's hands. "The Halliwells don't blame you and nor do I. What you did, you did under enormous stress. Temporary insanity in legal terms is how Paige put it. That wasn't you Will, that was the dark magic, and the only people to be killed were two evil people who used dark magic and dark science to harm other people."

"But what about the First Evil?" asked Willow. "Was it what I did that woke it up?"

"The elders don't know what woke it up this time but it wasn't you. It's been awake a few times before when the barriers between dimensions have been weak," explained Tara. "The elders think it's been active this time for about eighteen months or so. I think it was that portal Glory had opened that gave it the chance to do what it's doing."

Willow uttered a sigh of relief. "So it's nobody's fault. I mean it was Glory who was to blame for opening the portal. We had to stop Glory or none of us would be here now," she said. She sounded sure but Tara knew she still needed reassurance, so she hugged her again and kissed her on the cheek.

Suddenly Willow became aware that they were being watched. She turned suddenly to see a vaguely familiar African-American man and a shorter dark haired, not to say hot, leather clad white woman walking towards them from a car across the road.

"It's Willow right?" Gunn asked. "I'm Gunn, Charles Gunn. We met briefly a year or so ago when you came to see Angel. This is Gwen."

Willow suddenly held a crucifix first against Gunn and then against Gwen. They didn't flinch. "Sorry," she said but you can't be too careful."

"You're one of those appearing, disappearing women who were here a little while ago," Gunn said to Tara.

"This is Tara," said Willow. "She's a witch like me."

"Yes, we can see she likes you," said Gwen.

The Halliwells and Leo came out of the warehouse and explained the Beast was not there anymore. After a round of introductions Gunn explained that the Beast had followed them away from the warehouse. They had shaken it off and had then come back to try to keep an eye on it.

"We don't know...wow," said Piper as she spotted the Beast running down the street towards them.

Gwen surprised everyone present except Gunn by whipping off a glove and firing a strong, prolonged lightning bolt into the Beast. This staggered him and he stopped, but didn't fall down.

"That's all I've got for a while so you guys better be able to do something," said Gwen.

The Halliwell sisters were now stood together chanting their Power of Three spell to destroy the Beast. Meanwhile Willow blocked the Beast by holding her thicken spell. Even so the Beast began to slowly advance upon them.

Gunn heard a noise behind him. He turned to see three vampires running at them. Quickly joined by Leo and Gwen he laid into them. Suddenly from behind him he heard a very loud, deep voiced scream followed by a bang as the Beast exploded. To his disappointment the darkness remained. Despite this the vampire in front of him exploded, followed by the two others as Piper turned her power on them.

"Now that's what I call witch power," said Gwen, impressed by the Halliwells and Piper's power in particular.

"Hey guys, no more Beast," said Gunn. "That's great. Pity we've still got the darkness." he said. "Can you do anything about that?"

Tara smiled at him. "Just wait until tomorrow," she said.

Gunn looked momentarily puzzled.

"It's night-time," explained Gwen.

"And some of us have got to work tomorrow," said Phoebe. "Keep in touch," she said to Willow and Tara.

"I hope it works out OK," said Tara smiling at Phoebe.

Everybody said their goodbyes. Willow and Tara agreed to go with Gunn and Gwen back to the Hyperion to see what they could do about Angelus. Leo and the Halliwells orbed back to the manor.

"Hope what works out OK?" asked Paige as she arrived home with Phoebe.

"Some people are just too perceptive," muttered Phoebe in reply.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was true, the Turok-Han was leading a posse of Bringers towards the house, giving every indication of expecting to be able to come in. "Are you sure..," started Giles intending to ask Anya about what she said about the Turok-Han being able to come in but she was no longer there.

"She's outside," said Vi. "She just disappeared and now she's outside."

Anya's sudden appearance outside in front of the door to the Summers House surprised the Turok-Han and his followers. A Turok-Han however didn't do a lot of thinking. He'd been ordered to enter the house and kill everybody there and that's just what he intended to do. He started towards the house again.

Anya stepped forward and hit the vampire sending him flying back into the crowd of Bringers. Three of the bringers went down with the Turok-Han on top of them. As he struggled to get up again two crossbow bolts slammed into him. Both bolts found his heart and he turned to dust.

Anya glanced to either side and saw Dawn and Annabelle, standing beside her reloading their bows. They were quickly joined by Giles with his axe and Vi with her sword. The Bringers were now totally confused and they quickly became more so as Dawn and Annabelle fired at them.

One of the Bringers went down with a bolt in the head, another was wounded by being hit in the arm. He and the other Bringers fled in panic. Vi started to give chase but Giles pulled her back. "Stay here," he ordered. "Don't give them the chance to ambush us. We'll stay put until Buffy gets back."

"What about the dead one?" asked Annabelle. "He didn't turn to dust."

"We can't leave him in the front garden for the police to find," said Dawn.

Anya suddenly gasped and Giles looked up from examining the dead Bringer. Giles had never seen the distinctive looking demon who now stood in front of the house before but Dawn had. "D'Hoffryn!" she said.

"Such a pity," said D'Hoffryn directing his remarks to Anya. "You were the best you know Anyanka, so creative."

"So why didn't you give me another amulet when my first one was destroyed?" Anya asked.

"Because you were stale," replied D'Hoffryn. "You never would have let a human destroy your amulet when you were at your peak. You know how it works. You appreciate something better if you have to do without it for a while. I never intended to lose you for good."

"Well you've lost me for good now," said Anya. "You couldn't resist playing your games, even with your own people. Well you've played your last game."

"What makes you think that?" asked D'Hoffryn. "The game's only just started."

Suspecting that all was not as it seemed Dawn fired a bolt at D'Hoffryn. It went right through him. "It's The First," she said. "It's not really D'Hoffryn."

"That's what I thought," said Anya. "I killed D'Hoffryn last night." Dawn and Giles stared at Anya in surprise.

"For which I thank you Anyanka," said The First/D'Hoffryn. "It makes everything so much easier." With that The First disappeared.

"What did he mean by that?" asked Vi, worried.

"It's trying to mess with our minds," said Giles going back to the dead Bringer. "Let's take this body out the back."

"Phew, it's already starting to smell bad," said Annabelle.

"It'll be gone in a couple of hours," said Anya. "Demon hybrids like that don't last long after you kill them."

"You mean all those dead demon bodies we helped Buffy to bury, we didn't need to?" asked Dawn somewhat miffed.

"No, what Anya said doesn't hold true for most demons," explained Giles. "Anyway we needed to bury them. It's never a good ideal to leave demon bodies around for anybody to stumble across, even for a few hours." explained Giles.

"Shouldn't the slayer be back by now?" asked Annabelle sounding a little worried.


	8. That Old Spell Again

**Chapter Eight - That Old Spell Again**

Cordelia watched Angelus on the screen with the sound turned off. He was chained up and in the cage but as usual was talking away, trying to play his games. The object of his dialogue was Kennedy who was sat on the stairs reading, seemingly oblivious to Angelus's ranting.

Wesley entered the office. "Better get some sleep," he said. "Faith went up a while ago so she can relieve Kennedy later. I'll be here researching for a while."

Cordelia left the office and went into the foyer. Connor had bedded down on the couch, Lorne and Fred presumably were upstairs. Cordelia idly wondered if it had stopped raining and went over to the window. Yup, all dry now. Even the clouds had cleared. She could see the brightest of the stars up above shining...stars?

Cordelia stepped out of the front door looking up at the sky. Stars, no doubt about it, real stars! Cordelia hurried back inside shouting. "It's gone, it's gone, come and look, come and look!"

Connor roused from his sleep and Wesley came out of the office. Fred and Lorne appeared, the latter carrying a tray with a coffee pot and cups.

"What's gone?" asked Fred hurrying over to Cordelia. What's gone wrong now she thought, I hope he's not escaped again.

"He's gone?" said Connor rushing over. "How..."

"Not he's gone," corrected Cordelia. "It's gone. The darkness, it's gone."

"I don't want to rain on your parade sugar," said Lorne but looking out the window..."

"It's the middle of the night," said Cordelia impatiently. "But the stars are out. Go and have a look."

The group walked out of the front door and looked up into the sky. What had been a mundane sight before the Beast had arrived was now a glorious prospect. "It means the sun will be up in the morning doesn't it?" Fred asked Wesley. "It won't come back again will it?"

"Nope, said Gunn walking down the path towards the group. "No more Beast, no more darkness."

The group followed Gunn indoors. An armed Faith appeared on the stairs having heard the commotion and had to be reassured that there was no new crisis. As Gunn started to explain what had happened Faith looked up. "Hi Willow," she said drawing everybody's attention to the entrance of Willow, Tara and Gwen.

The next several minutes were taken up with introductions and explanations. Willow and Tara allowed Gunn to explain what had happened to the Beast, with occasional sarcastic comments from Gwen. Willow introduced Tara as her friend and fellow witch but did not mention her new status as a Whitelighter.

"It's seems all that time I spent researching the Beast was wasted," said Fred. "But I'm still glad you guys got rid of it."

"It may not be wasted," said Wesley. "There's still the Beast's master out there. I don't think we've heard the last from him."

"Or her," added Cordelia. Typical Wesley she thought. He automatically assumes we're up against a man or male thing...whatever.

"So you used your magic," said Faith to Willow. "Heard you were a big scary Wicca these days."

Willow gave Faith an unfriendly glare. I wonder what she heard thought Willow. "It wasn't us," she said. "The spell was done by our three witch friends."

"They must be pretty powerful witches," said Wesley, angling for more information which wasn't forthcoming.

"So can you do the soul spell for Angelus?" Cordelia asked Willow. This led onto Connor and Fred explaining to the newcomers all about the capture of Angelus.

"We'd better wait until morning" said Tara. "We're all tired and that sort of spell works better if it's done during the day."

Faith quietly slipped away to the basement to speak to Kennedy. As she entered the basement Angelus sat up. "Hey Faithy, just the person I want to see," he said. "Come and give us a kiss. I'll tell you if you're as good as Buffy."

Faith ignored Angelus and indicated to Kennedy to come to the top of the stairs for a chat. She explained who had arrived and what had happened. She suggested that Kennedy go upstairs to meet the newcomers while she kept an eye on Angelus. That way I can keep out of Willow's way for the time being she thought. It'll give her the chance to get used to me being here.

Kennedy left and Faith went down the stairs and sat down. Angelus started up again. "Nice looking girlfriend you've got there," he said. "Did you bring her out of jail with you? I can understand you not wanting to leave her behind."

"Now, now, none of that," said the mayor from behind Faith. "My Faith's not like that."

Faith turned quickly and saw Mayor Wilkins, large as life, stood at the top of the stairs. "You know if you'd gotten together with my Faith back in Sunnydale everything would have turned out so much better for everybody," he said and then laughed. "Well, not quite everybody of course."

"I'm not your Faith," said Faith and backhanded the mayor, or she would have done had the mayor not been incorporeal. Her hand passed right through his head.

"Now that's not nice," said the mayor. "Is that the manners I taught you? And in front of company as well."

"What d'yuh think Faith?" asked Angelus. "How about we give it another shot?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Despite the events of the previous night Buffy and Dawn had to be at the High School the next day. Giles remained at the Summers house in charge of the four potentials. In the middle of the morning he answered a ring at the door. It was Amy.

Amy explained that she'd had a call from Anya telling her she'd spoken to Giles so she'd popped round to talk about the Magic Box. Giles took Amy into the kitchen for a discussion over tea. As a result of their discussion they reached agreement to become equal partners in the Magic Box with Anya, one third each.

Giles agreed to the restoration arrangements already agreed between Amy and Anya and shook hands with Amy over the deal. I really should get into the habit of shaking hands more often to be sure I'm not dealing with The First thought Giles. Living in a house with a lot of young women he could hardly go around touching them all the time.

"Why don't we go out and celebrate the deal over lunch," suggested Amy.

"I'm afraid I need to be here with the potentials," explained Giles.

"Bring them with you," suggested Amy. "They'll be safer with you and me than they would be with just you here. Anyway it's broad daylight."

"Didn't you do a protection spell on this house?" asked Giles suspiciously.

"Of course I did, but that's to block magic and to stop explosions going off," said Amy. "I can't do a spell to protect against everything. Nobody's got that sort of power. I thought you knew about magic?"

"Well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to take the girls out for a little while rather than have them cooped up here all the time," said Giles. "We can do some shopping on the way back. With the number of people staying here and with more coming we need to get a lot of supplies in."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sun was shining again in LA. The people gathered in the Hyperion Hotel were discussing Faith's dead visitor of the night before. Willow had explained what she had been told about The First Evil.

"So you're saying this First Evil whatchamacallit can pretend to be anybody?" asked Gunn. "How do we deal with that?"

"As far as I know it can't appear as anybody, just anybody who's died" explained Willow.

"Even if they're alive again now," said Tara.

"You mean like Buffy," said Cordelia. Tara nodded.

"Or any vampire, like Angel," said Wesley. "Technically all vampires are dead."

"What about you?" Willow asked Tara. "Can it pretend to be you?"

"I don't know," said Tara, "I hope not."

"You died?" asked Gwen. "Is that what that appearing and disappearing was all about?"

This was the first time some of them knew about Tara's orbing ability as most had assumed that it was the Halliwell witches who were responsible for the arrivals and departures detailed by Gunn in his description of events the previous day.

"Yes, I was technically dead for a while," she said. "Orbing from place to place is something I developed recently." Tara did not go into further detail and the others did not press.

"Well that...whatever certainly seemed to be the mayor. I mean he knew things, things the mayor knew," said Faith, "and his personality, his, his manner everything. That was Mayor Wilkins or his ghost."

"Perhaps pretend isn't the right term," said Wesley. "It seems The First Evil has access to the memories, to the minds of the dead. We've all got to be on our guard. If you see anybody who you know is dead or was dead always check it out, make sure it's a real person and not a non-corporeal imitation."

"There's a point you're missing," said Lorne. "This First Evil guy's got these killers working for him. He's going to try to kill somebody, maybe one of us, without the others knowing, and then take his or her place. We need to keep checking each other out."

This prompted a round of hand holding and general touching to assure everybody that the other people present were who they appeared to be.

"I'll check out Kennedy after we've finished," said Faith. Kennedy was asleep upstairs at the moment. Or at least Faith hoped it was Kennedy.

"And I'll check on Connor," said Gunn. Connor was currently on Angelus watch.

"What I don't understand is why this First Evil is acting this way," said Fred.

"Because it's evil?" suggested Gwen sarcastically. "Isn't that its whole reason for existing?"

"I know that," said Fred. "What I mean is why did it appear as somebody we know is dead? If it had come as Angel, or Buffy it could have really messed us up without us knowing it wasn't the real person."

"It's undoubtedly working to a plan," said Wesley. "We don't yet know what it is."

"Or it may be more limited that it wants us to realise," suggested Tara. "It may only be able to do these short appearances at the moment."

"Yeah, the mayor was only there for a few minutes," said Faith. But long enough to make me sick of what I did when I worked for him she thought.

"If it is limited in this way we can't rely on it lasting. It might be getting stronger as time goes by," said Wesley.

"Or weaker," said Gunn. "If the Beast was his boy, that must have hurt him."

"It might be stronger nearer to the Hellmouth," suggested Cordelia. "In fact it's probably concentrating on Sunnydale at the moment what with all the potential slayers going there."

"Which is why I'd better get on with the soul spell so I can get back to Sunnydale to help Buffy," said Willow.

The group broke up. Faith went upstairs to see Kennedy and Gunn went to the basement. Willow and Tara started making preparations for the soul spell helped by Fred and Cordelia.

Wesley went into the office to continue his researches into the First Evil. He had been shocked by the news of the destruction of the Watchers Council. He had already telephoned his father, a retired watcher and confirmed that he was OK.

Wesley's father knew the names of some of the dead but had been out of touch with Council operations for a number of years. What both puzzled and annoyed Wesley was that his father had not contacted him. He supposed his father might have assumed he would already know but suspected it was a continuation of his father's disapproval over his split with the Council.

"That just leaves you and me," said Lorne to Gwen. "Fancy helping me put some lunch together?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giles stopped his hire car outside the Summers house. As he got out of the car with the four potentials he saw a girl waiting outside the front of the house. Another potential he thought, I knew I should have stayed here. At least she seems to be all right.

The new girl was Sophie, an American from Georgia. Her watcher had gone to England a couple of weeks earlier and she hadn't heard from her since. She'd come to see Buffy because that's what her watcher had told her to do in an emergency. She hadn't seen any Bringers or even heard of them. She'd had an uneventful journey by plane and bus.

Sophie helped the other girls unload the supplies and take them into the house, thus incidentally confirming that she was properly corporeal. All the time the other potentials chatted about the slayer and what had happened to them in the past few days. They all seem brighter, more confident, than when they first arrived thought Giles.

As Giles locked up the car after everything had been taken out Xander pulled up behind in his car. "Buffy about?" he asked.

"She's not back from school. She should be here in about half an hour," replied Giles. "Something up?"

"New potential," said Xander.

"She's already here," said Giles.

"Huh?" replied Xander puzzled.

"Sophie, she just got in from Georgia," explained Giles pointing to the blonde girl chatting to Molly.

"No, this is another one," said Xander, "somebody local. Buffy had a call from England. As there was nobody here they rang me."

"At work?" asked Giles, puzzled.

"I was at home," said Xander. "I've been doing a few late shifts lately and was having a day off."

"Who exactly rang?" asked Giles.

"Somebody called Althenea. She said there was a new potential here in Sunnydale but they didn't know who it was."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow and Tara were doing the spell to ensoul Angel together. They had already done the spell to release his soul from its container, wherever it was. For a long time they had done all their spells together but this was the first one together since...since, since we brought Buffy back thought Willow. They were both enjoying themselves immensely, neither of them could stop smiling at each other.

Gunn and Connor were downstairs watching Angelus, Lorne was in the kitchen and the others were watching Willow and Tara. Gradually Fred began to realise something. She whispered "Do you think Willow and Tara..."

Cordelia, Faith, Kennedy and Gwen all looked at Fred as if she were stupid. "Oh...right," said Fred realising she was the last to notice. Or perhaps not quite the last:

"What?" asked Wesley.

"I'll explain later," said Cordelia smiling. Wesley gave her a puzzled look but said no more.

Willow and Tara finished the spell.

"How will we know it worked?" asked Kennedy. "How will we know he isn't faking?"

"Again," said Cordelia.

"I'll know," said Tara leading the way down to the basement.

In the basement Tara declared that Angel did indeed now have his soul back. Gunn unlocked the cage and released Angel from the chains. They all then went back upstairs.

Back in the foyer Lorne joined them and Willow introduced Tara to Angel and Faith introduced Kennedy. They all brought Angel up to date on what had been happening.

"Sorry we can't stay," said Willow. "But we've got to get back to Sunnydale."

Faith and Kennedy explained that they too would be going to Sunnydale to join up with Buffy and the potentials as it seemed The First Evil had primarily declared war on all the slayers and potentials. "It killed my watcher," said Kennedy. "This is personal for me."

Wesley explained that while he had thought about going to Sunnydale he had decided he could be more use staying in LA and carrying on research into The First and the Beast master. "What about the rest of us?" asked Fred. "I think we should go to Sunnydale to help as well."

Suddenly Cordelia staggered. She no longer had the severe pain from having the visions but she had been taken by surprise. Angel immediately moved to steady her knowing before the others what was happening. He helped Cordelia over to the couch to sit down.

"What was it," asked Angel, "what did you see?"

"Tonight, big band of vampires and demons downtown, looking for trouble," she said.

"There must be an awful lot of them in town at the moment, attracted here by the darkness," said Wesley.

"Guess that takes care of what we're doing," said Gunn. "We're staying in LA to clean up the mess left behind by the Beast."

"I think we can spare one evening for a little fun before we go," said Faith.


	9. Sisterhoods

**Chapter Nine - Sisterhoods**

"All right," Piper said to Phoebe, "what's going on? What are you up to?" The three sisters were standing in the back garden of the Halliwell Mansion. A few minutes previously Phoebe had signalled her sisters to be quiet and had then led Piper and Paige outside.

"And what was that spell you just did?" asked Paige.

"I did a privacy spell," said Phoebe quietly, "and now I'd like to do another one with the Power of Three. I'll explain after we've finished."

"OK," said Piper, but it better be good."

The three sisters spoke the spell as Phoebe spread the contents of a steaming pot in a circle around them on the grass. As soon as all was done Piper spoke up again. "Now what..." she began.

"Shhhh," whispered Phoebe with her hand over Piper's mouth. At the same time she grabbed Paige's arm and pulled both of her sisters close to her. "Stay absolutely quiet, whatever happens," she whispered.

A few moments later there was the familiar sight of the bright lights indicating the arrival of a Whitelighter and there was Leo. By now Phoebe had a hand over Paige's mouth as well. Piper glared at Phoebe but stayed silent and waited to see what would happen next.

Leo glanced around him but clearly did not see the three sisters, nor did he see the ring in the grass. He looked a little puzzled but then went into the house.

Phoebe pulled her sisters down so that they were sitting close together on the grass. "OK, I made the spell to hide sound as well, but there's no need to take any chances," she said quietly. "Talk quietly and stop if you see anybody around."

"Did you do all this to avoid Leo?" asked Paige. Does she think Leo's gone bad she thought?

"And if you did why? Don't you trust him?" asked Piper. This better not be another round of my sister turns evil or I'm gonna scream she thought.

"I trust Leo to do what he thinks is best for us," said Phoebe. "I don't trust him to do what we think is best for us."

"You think Leo's up to something," asked Paige. "What exactly?"

"I think Leo's been up to something for a long time and I think he's doing what the elders tell him to," said Phoebe. "That's why I hope those spells are hiding us from the elders. Once we disappeared off their radar I expected Leo to turn up looking for us and presto, there he was."

At that moment Leo came back out of the house clearly having looked for the sisters inside without success. He walked around the garden still looking puzzled and then went over to the side of the house and orbed away.

"OK, give," said Piper. "What do you think's going on?"

"I've been thinking about Prue," said Phoebe. "The whole Willow and Tara business made me wonder why we couldn't talk to Prue. That excuse about it being too soon is quite literally getting old."

"Well it's been a while since we last tried," said Piper. "Let's try again now."

"No go," said Phoebe shaking her head. "I tried again this morning. No joy."

"So what do you think's happening?" asked Paige. "Do you think the elders are blocking Prue from responding to us?"

"Maybe," said Phoebe. "That's one possibility. There are others."

"Such as?" asked Piper.

"Prue may not want to respond."

Piper shook her head. "No, I won't accept that. Prue would never do that."

"Prue would do that and more, if she thought it was for our own good," said Phoebe.

"What other possibilities?" asked Paige.

"Well...this may be a long shot but...we're doing spells to call the dead. What if Prue wasn't dead?" suggested Phoebe.

"Oh honey," said Piper putting her arms around Phoebe. "She's dead, we know she's dead, we saw her. Besides, the Power of Three was broken."

"Let's just suppose for a minute," continued Phoebe doggedly. "We know a lot more about magic than we used to. If you wanted to fake your death do you know enough magic to do it, because I do? Don't forget Prue was always stronger than us. If Prue decided to drop out of sight she could have done it and she could have broken the power of three at the same time."

"Now wait a minute," objected Piper. "First you say Prue might be alive, now you're saying she's the one who was behind all this, whatever it is. I'm not convinced it's anything at all."

"Weren't you just saying this was all the elders and Leo," asked Paige.

"Look, I'm just making suggestions," explained Phoebe. "I don't know what's behind it. What I do know is there's something fishy about us not being able to contact Prue. I think Leo and the elders know something about it that they've not told us. I don't think Prue or Leo or even the elders have done anything other than what they thought was in our best interests, but I don't know."

"So what's your plan?" Piper asked Phoebe. She knew her sister too well to believe that Phoebe just wanted to talk. She had something in mind and she wanted her sisters to help her with it.

Phoebe smiled. "I want us to do a spell, right now, to take us to Prue, wherever that is," she said. "I've got all the ingredients and the wording here."

After a short hesitation Paige spoke up. "I'm in," she said. "I know I don't miss Prue in the same way that you guys do but I really, really miss not having known her." To Paige Prue was something of a legend. The fact that she was at the same time her sister had made Paige very frustrated that they had never met.

"You know there's a risk don't you," said Piper. "This might be a one way trip." Phoebe nodded. "That might be why Leo and the elders don't want us to contact Prue," continued Piper. Phoebe still kept silent but Piper could see that Phoebe and probably Paige as well, were determined to go ahead, with or without her. "OK," said Piper, "let's do it."

Phoebe nodded again and opened the bag that she had with her. She never had any doubts about Piper agreeing. Piper misses Prue as much as I do, thought Phoebe, maybe even more. She had however been pleased and a little surprised by Paige's prompt agreement.

After a few moments Phoebe had everything ready. Piper and Paige stood close to her and they joined hands. As they finished chanting the spell the world about them started to fade.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amy sat on the floor of the front room of the Summers House to carry out her spell to find the Sunnydale potential. Buffy, Dawn, Giles, Xander and Anya sat about and watched her as did the five potentials, Vi, Molly, Annabelle, Rona and Sophie.

"Hey, do you think this girl, this potential, goes to Sunnydale?" asked Dawn.

"Probably, she's got to be about that age. I wonder who she is," replied her sister, mentally going through the girls she knew at the school. Since she unconsciously tried to think of somebody she thought was like her she failed to come up with any likely candidates.

"Could be anybody," said Dawn. "Could be that glamazon in gym class, what's her name? Or, my lab partner, Margot, the freak. Boy, I hope not, because she totally fainted right in the middle of our foetal pig dissection. Somehow I just don't think she's cut out for the slayage biz."

"Well, we'll know soon enough who the next potential is. Somebody's life is about to change," said Giles.

"You know, if it is Margot, she's so gonna faint," said Dawn.

"How long will it take?" asked Molly. "Will we find out who it is right away?"

"Pretty much," replied Amy. "The spell will conjure up this brilliant light, and the light will find the potential and it'll illuminate her with a glowing aura," or at least that's the way it's meant to work she added mentally.

"I don't remember a glowing aura when I became a potential," said Rona.

"And I don't remember Aura glowing," said Xander.

"That's because you weren't allowed into the girls' locker room," said Anya.

"I've enchanted this map," said Amy gesturing to a map on the coffee table, "so we can track her basic location. We'll have to hot-foot it, but I'm betting we find her tonight."

Some time later Amy sat in front of the lit fireplace. She had a mortar and pestle on the hearth and her ingredients were laid out. Dawn, Anya and Xander were also still in the room. The potentials, except Sophie, had gone into the kitchen to eat. Buffy had taken Sophie on her first patrol. Giles had gone to the UC Sunnydale library to carry out some research.

As she recited the spell, Amy threw each item she mentioned into the fire:

_"To light the aura of the new, skin of snake and chrysalis too. _

_To indicate the fresh reborn, tumbleweed and rosebush thorn. _

_An egg that means the life to come. Take this, oh spirit, and my spell is done."_

As Amy finished the spell recitation, an orange haze emanated from the fireplace. Everyone in the room wrinkled up their noses and started coughing.

"Oh, good God," said Xander, "what is that smell?"

"I'm fairly sure that's the smell of a hardboiled egg being thrown into a fire," said Anya covering her nose with her hand.

"Uh-huh," agreed Xander

"The smell will lead us to the potential," said Amy also covering her nose with her hand.

The orange haze from the fire had gathered in the centre of the room, making a mass of glowing light. Willow, Anya, Dawn and Xander stood in a circle and the light moved around in the middle of the circle.

"Is it supposed to be shimmying all over like that?" asked Xander at the same time wondering if Amy really knew what she was doing. He remembered all too well what had happened at Sunnydale High a few years before.

"I don't know, I don't think so," replied Amy deepening Xander's misgivings.

"I'm gonna open the door and let this place air out," said Xander waving at the air in front of him as he walked to the front door. Suddenly, the mass of light congealed and formed into a solid beam and headed straight for Dawn

"Dawn!" cried Xander.

The light hit Dawn with such a force that it picked her up and pinned her to the wall. The light went straight into her, and she dropped to the ground, her chest still glowing orange. Somewhat disoriented, Dawn looked at Amy, Xander and Anya with wide eyes.

"Looks like we've found our new potential," said Xander.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Piper, Phoebe and Paige found themselves standing in a forest glade, or as Phoebe thought, a clearing in the jungle. They had cast the spell during the evening but it now seemed to be about midday. Perhaps they were in a different part of the world she thought.

"So where are we and where's Prue," asked Paige. "Didn't the spell work?"

"We'd still be in the garden if it hadn't worked," Phoebe explained, trying to convince herself at the same time that something hadn't gone wrong.

"Let's have a look around," said Piper walking towards what looked to be a path leading out of the clearing.

They walked along the path for about ten minutes and found themselves on what appeared to be a tropical beech. This is crazy thought Phoebe, that spell should either have left us in the garden or taken us straight to Prue.

"Look at this," said Paige who had wandered a little way along the beach while Piper and Phoebe had been looking at the sea. Piper and Phoebe walked over to her. Stretching away along the beach were footprints, human footprints from bare feet. Piper slipped off a shoe and measured her foot alongside one of the prints. It was exactly the same size. "Same size as me," she said, "which means the same size as Prue."

They set off to follow the footprints. "I'm glad they're barefoot prints," said Paige. "This is just the sort of situation you read about where somebody follows footprints all around an island and then realises they've been following themselves."

As they walked along they saw a formation of rocks jutting out of the sand ahead of them. It was soon clear that the footprints lead to the rocks. As they walked they gradually made out a figure sat on one of the rocks. A person who was sat down watching them approach.

The three sisters quickened their pace and soon they were running forward. Could it be? It looked like it might be. It was! It was Prue. Prue was sitting in the rocks watching her three sisters run towards her. The three running sisters all had broad smiles on their faces. Prue however looked worried, very worried.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley came downstairs having spent the night at the hotel after the big fight the previous night with the demons and vampires. As usual after it was all over the local population was making the familiar mental adjustment. He had heard mention of gang warfare and drug violence even though it should have been clear to any witness that there had been creatures in downtown LA that were far from human.

Even the darkness was now being explained away. Wesley had had the TV on whilst he dressed and had heard reference on a news programme to the recent incident of heavy pollution darkening the sky in LA for several days.

Wesley could see nobody about in the foyer but saw Angel alone in the office and went in.

"Nobody else about?" asked Wesley. "Am I the first out of bed?"

"You're nearly the last," replied Angel surprising Wesley. "All the girls have gone shopping. Faith and Tara don't have anything so the others are gonna kit them out. As I owe them big time I'm paying."

"Cordy and Willow are taking Faith shopping?" asked Wesley doubtfully. I don't remember them exchanging two words last night he thought. I didn't think they'd all forgive and forget so soon.

"Well no," replied Angel. "Faith went with Gwen and Kennedy. Cordy and Fred went with Willow and Tara."

Wesley nodded, needing no further explanation. However Angel seemed to be down. Well Angel was usually down but even so. "I should think you could afford a little happiness at the way things turned out," Wesley began. "Didn't Willow..."

"I've been thinking, remembering what I...what Angelus...what I did when I was Angelus," said Angel.

"Something bad?" asked Wesley.

"No, nothing really bad," explained Angel. "It's as if he was holding back. He never actually killed anybody, anybody human that is."

"And this is bad?" asked Wesley.

"I think Angelus was being influenced by me," said Angel, "and if that's true..."

"You're worried that Angelus might influence you," completed Wesley. "It doesn't necessarily follow you know."

"How so?" asked Angel.

"Well you might have been supplying a little of something that Angelus lacked," suggested Wesley.

"A soul you mean?" asked Angel.

"Soul, conscience, a sense of right and wrong, who knows," said Wesley. "Anyway Angelus doesn't have what you lack. He's incomplete, you're not. It won't necessarily work the other way round."

"But why this time?" asked Angel. "It never happened that way when I was Angelus before."

Wesley shrugged. "Maybe it's cumulative, maybe you have a stronger and stronger influence on Angelus each time you change," he suggested.

"Sort of like Jekyll and Hide," said Angel. "With each change the effect is stronger?"

"Rather a reverse of Jekyll and Hide perhaps," said Wesley who had a sudden thought. "Don't you think the original Angelus, the monster who killed his way across Europe, would have killed Buffy? Don't you think you still had some small influence on him even after you changed into Angelus in Sunnydale?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You know, in all the years we've known each other this is the first time we've been shopping together," said Willow to Cordelia.

"You could have avoided a few fashion disasters if you'd spent some quality time shopping with me rather than all that time researching through Giles' dusty old books," said Cordelia sounding more and more like the Cordelia Willow knew and..., and had gotten used to.

Willow, Tara, Cordelia and Fred were sat at a table in a quiet corner of a small cafe having a coffee and a short rest before completing their shopping day out. Willow had enjoyed herself enormously dressing Tara, or rather letting Cordelia take charge. As Cordelia said, when it came to shopping and fashion she was the Slayer.

"Do you think...," began Tara but she didn't finish because Cordelia abruptly slumped back in her chair and looked like sliding off it altogether. Willow and Fred rushed to either side of her but Cordelia rapidly recovered.

"Another one?" asked Tara. "Are you all right? I can, uh, help if you need it."

"Tara's got this great ability to um..." began Willow who looked at Tara wondering if it was OK to continue.

Tara continued herself. "I can heal in an emergency, especially if it's a mystic thing, caused by demons and so on."

"No, I'm fine," said Cordelia, "now that I'm part demon it's not serious any more, just a little headache."

"Part demon?" said Willow, exchanging glances with Tara. They both had the same memory in mind, the visit of the Maclay family to Sunnydale two years before. "Who told you, you were part demon?"

Cordelia explained what had happened to her. How the visions had got more and more painful and had threatened her life. How Skip had come to her and how she'd decided to become part demon.

"But not a bad demon," said Fred nervously. "She's still Cordy, she's still on our side."

"That was very brave of you Cordy," said Willow. I didn't think she had it in her she thought. Cordy really has changed a lot.

"The only thing is," said Tara, "you're not part demon. There's no demon in you. You've been lied to."

"What!" said Cordy who did not know whether to be glad or sad, "Are you sure? Because I've done a few things since it all happened."

"Believe me," said Tara. "If you were part demon I'd be able to detect it."

"You can do that?" asked Willow.

"Yes, if I have reason to look carefully," said Tara. "This creature Skip was lying to you. It was probably him or whoever he was working for who gave you the pains to make you agree to what they wanted."

"But what about the visions?" asked Cordelia, "and the other things that I've done." She explained how she'd got the visions from her friend the half demon Doyle and the 'demon' powers she'd used since she'd seen Skip. This led on to her explaining about her second meeting with Skip, and her now very vague memories as a 'higher being.'

"I can explain some of this but I need to go report this all to somebody who knows a lot more than me," said Tara. "The powers you've used, even the visions, are not demon powers, they're witch powers. Your friend Doyle didn't have the visions because he was part demon but because he was part human, that is to say part witch."

"So I'm a witch?" asked Cordelia.

"If only Xander were here now," said Willow. "We called you the wicked witch of the west for months after we saw the Wizard of Oz together."

"Yes, you're a witch," agreed Tara. "Your powers have gradually been awakening and getting stronger. You wouldn't have been able to take Doyle's visions if you didn't already have some power of your own. It's an old trick to make a witch doubt herself by telling her that her power comes from the devil."

"So what was this Skip up to?" asked Fred.

"I don't know," replied Tara, "but I know somebody who might know. Look, there's more than enough stuff here for me. Can you guys get it all back to the hotel? I'd better go and see him now. I'll see you back there later."

Willow, Cordelia and Fred agreed to take care of the shopping and Tara left. To Cordelia's surprise Tara went into the ladies room. Willow explained that Tara simply needed to get out of sight so she could orb away.

Willow, Cordelia and Fred gathered up the shopping and left. It was only as they were getting into the car that Cordelia remembered to tell the others what her vision was all about.


	10. Pressure Building

**Chapter Ten - Pressure Building**

Leo put the phone down. After trying all the mystic methods he knew he'd tried a mundane search, without any success from either approach. Nobody had seen the sisters since the previous day. Either something had happened to them or something powerful was blocking him off from sensing where they were.

Something may have lured them away he thought. Phoebe at least had expected to be doing something because she'd taken a couple of days off work. It was just possible they were up to something themselves but if so why hadn't Piper said anything to him?

The familiar lights appeared in the middle of the Halliwell front room. Tara had orbed in. Leo wondered whether she was always the type to have a smile on her face the whole time or whether she still hadn't come down to earth from her reunion with Willow. He smiled to himself at the thought because Tara had of course quite literally 'Come down to Earth' to be with the one she loved.

"Something up?" he asked, "or just checking in?"

Tara explained why she had come. She explained all about Cordelia's experiences with Skip, both the part-demon scam and the whole 'Higher Being' experience.

"Who do you think's behind it?" she asked, "and what are they up to?"

"Any number of evil forces could be behind it," replied Leo. "The whole part demon business sounds like a set up for the 'Higher Being' later," said Leo. "Whoever's behind it probably knew Cordelia would start showing witch powers sooner or later so they took credit for it. As for the 'Higher Being' thing itself, I should think they wanted Cordelia out of the way for a while."

"Yes, I worked that out," said Tara. "The whole business of the arrival of The Beast and the darkness was organised while she was away. If Cordy'd been there all the time she might have been able to give Angel and his people enough help to stop it in time. What I don't understand is why they didn't kill her. That would have stopped any warnings."

"Oh no it wouldn't," said Leo shaking his head. "Warnings come from somewhere, some higher power. If Cordelia was dead they'd have found another way to send their visions. All the time Cordelia was alive they probably didn't know the message wasn't getting through."

"So why did they let her go?" asked Tara. "I'd have thought they'd have kept her where she was at least until their plan was complete."

"Perhaps they didn't let her go," suggested Leo. "Maybe she had help. You're right, she must be a witch. She might have a Whitelighter assigned to her. You could return to base to check it out."

"Thanks Leo," said Tara. "But before I go, why are you sitting here alone worrying? Is something up with the sisters?"

Leo explained that the sisters had disappeared and try as he might he had been unable to find them. "I'm out of ideas," he said.

"I have an idea," said Tara, "but I don't know if it's got anything to do with where they are."

"What?" asked Leo hopefully.

"Well, one thing that impressed Willow was how much they all missed their other sister Prue," said Tara. "She was the only person they'd been unable to call with their spell to meet the dead. Willow thinks Phoebe intended to do something different to try to get through to Prue."

"If that's true then I might know where they are," said Leo. "But I don't know how to get them back again."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy and Principal Wood sat across from each other at a small table in a very elegant restaurant. Buffy had accepted the invitation in order to find out more about the Principal. She wondered whether Principal Wood had romantic intentions. He was a very good looking guy and not that much older than her but she wasn't sure whether she wanted to start a regular relationship at the moment.

"It's nice to get a chance to talk away from the day to day bustle of the job," said Wood, "a chance to get to know the counsellor and the slayer better."

"How do you know about Slayers?" asked Buffy, surprised.

"My mother was a Slayer," Wood explained. "She was killed when I was four."

"A vampire I presume," asked Buffy.

"That's right," said Wood. "You're a lot like her."

"Did you give me the job because I'm the Slayer?" asked Buffy. "I wasn't exactly qualified."

"Partly I suppose," said Wood. "But then again, who's better qualified than the Slayer to talk to kids going to school on the Hellmouth."

"So you know about the Hellmouth as well?" asked Buffy not yet convinced that Wood really was one of the good guys. He took a lot of getting used to after Snyder.

"When I applied for this job I did a lot of reading up on this town," he explained. "Like most people I assumed that Hellmouth wasn't meant literally but I know different now."

"How?" asked Buffy.

"Because there seems to be some sort of entrance in the basement," Wood explained. He continued on to advise of the large pentagram with mystic symbols that he had discovered a few days before. He had tried to erase it but all his efforts had been in vain. After a while he had begun to feel odd and had decided to leave it alone.

"Have you seen any dead people," Buffy asked. "I mean has anybody you used to know before they died appeared to you?"

"My mother," said Wood. "I knew it wasn't her but it sure seemed like her, right down to the perfume she used. I take it I'm not the only one to be visited."

Buffy explained what she knew about The First Evil and how to recognise it. "I need to have a look at that entrance or whatever it is," she said, "see if there's any way to close it down. A couple of old type vampires have appeared recently, I think they might have come out of there."

As they walked back to Wood's car after the meal Wood explained about some Slayer stuff of his mother's that he had and which he would bring around to Buffy's home the next day.

Later Wood and Buffy stood looking at the seal over the Hellmouth. They had picked up plans of the building from Wood's office before entering the basement. "Yep, this is below where the library used to be in the old school," she said. "That means the Hellmouth is right here, or rather underneath where we're standing now."

A noise came from elsewhere in the basement. It sounded like a group of people approaching from the right. Buffy and Wood moved away to the left. Wood was about to turn off the light to hide their presence when Buffy stopped him. "If they're who I think they are they don't need light, but we do," she explained.

Buffy and Wood retreated to the top of the short flight of stairs leading into the basement. The approaching group were exactly who Buffy suspected they might be: Bringers. Oddly she thought she recognised a couple of the eight person group.

"That's Lancer, Darren Lancer, and that's Marie Vengas," whispered Wood. "What's happened to them? Their eyes!"

"They work for The First now," said Buffy. "Let's get out of here."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So you're Cordelia's Whitelighter," said Tara. "You've been looking out for her. Was it you that brought her back from wherever this Skip demon put her?"

"That was me yes," said the other woman. "But I shouldn't have let it happen in the first place."

"She doesn't know about you does she?" asked Tara. "She never mentioned you."

"Most Whitelighters work in secret," said the other Whitelighter smiling. "You're picking up bad habits working with Leo."

"Was there a Whitelighter working with me before I died?" asked Tara, "because there were a few times when it would have been a big help."

"Because of my past history I looked in on Sunnydale from time to time but I was never assigned there and I was busy elsewhere most of the time," said the other. "I can tell you this though. If there had been a Whitelighter about, Willow would never have been allowed to bring Buffy back."

Tara nodded, not surprised. In the end it had worked out well, at least she thought it had, but it was a very risky thing for Willow to have done. In Tara's view what Willow had done then had a lot to do with what happened to her in the following months.

"Don't you think you should talk to Cordelia now, tell her about yourself," asked Tara.

"No need," said the other. "You've got a new assignment."

"But I can't leave Willow," said Tara stunned. "I mean, she needs me, as a Whitelighter not just as, as..."

"Of course she needs you," said the other, "but a Whitelighter never deals with only one witch. The elders want you to continue working with Willow but to work with Cordelia as well. There's also another witch in Sunnydale who is seriously in need of guidance. I believe you've already met her. Amy Madison."

"Yes, I've met Amy, briefly," said Tara. "Is she still into the dark magic?"

"Not so much," said the other. "We have hopes for her. She's been working with Buffy and the gang lately. She seems to be getting her balance back after her experience as a rat. You need to help her with that."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy walked into the office area and saw Principal Wood standing next to the front desk holding an ice pack to his head. "Something bad is going on," she said.

"Oh, is that right?" Wood replied sarcastically.

"Ooh, you're hurt," said Buffy, "what happened?

"Someone threw a rock at me as I got out of my car. I didn't really get a good chance to see who," he answered.

Buffy took a bandage from the first-aid kit on the desk and unwrapped it. "Yeah, well, it could have been any of them. Students, teachers—something is going on today," she said.

"Yes, well, um, that occurred to me as I ducked the other two rocks," he said. "Buffy, what the hell is this?"

"Everything," replied Buffy as she put the bandage on Wood's head wound.

"Slowly," he said. "I may be concussed here."

Buffy shook her head. "There's this thing that happens here, in this school, over the Hellmouth. Where the way a thing feels—it kind of starts being that way...for real. I've seen all these things before...just not all at once," she explained.

"So, what," he said, "it's like hell's a bustin' out all over?"

"Exactly," said Buffy.

"So, what's the worst that can happen?" he asked.

"War," she said, "pretty much."

"Oh, I see you're being amusing now with comical exaggeration," said Wood hopefully.

"Being in high school can feel like being at war," she said. "Now it's true. The students feel like the teachers are out to get them. The Chess Club resents the French Club for taking the activities room, and, well, everybody hates the cheerleaders. If we don't do something about this, we're gonna have a riot on our hands. And a lot of other nasty stuff too."

"Like what?" he asked.

A boy in the hallway screamed, increasingly louder, until he exploded, leaving bloody residue splattered all over the outside of the office window.

"Really should have had that foot rub," she said looking out of the window.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Not bad," said Faith on seeing Kennedy's Porsche for the first time. Kennedy opened the trunk and Faith piled her new luggage inside. "Present from daddy?"

"From mommy," corrected Kennedy. "I might not be the tallest slayer but I can be the fastest."

"Yeah," murmured Faith, "you're certainly fast."

Kennedy gave Faith a glance. She was still a little in awe of the older slayer but that hadn't stopped her trying. She wasn't surprised that Faith wasn't interested, most girls weren't. Faith however wasn't most girls. Kennedy stopped her musing as Willow and Tara came out of the hotel.

"Change of plan," said Willow, "Cordy's coming with us." Kennedy was surprised but Faith was astonished. She had found time to say sorry to Cordy but Cordy had hardly spoken to her the whole time.

"Why?" asked Faith.

Willow explained about Cordelia's visions. The one she had had the previous afternoon indicated that she was needed in Sunnydale, so she was going with them. Fred had decided to come too.

"I suppose Cordy's visions might come in useful," said Kennedy, "but what use is Fred?" Kennedy generally rated people according to their fighting ability. She had a high opinion of Faith and Willow but Fred, who she didn't think could fight, was at the bottom of her list.

"Think of Fred as another watcher," said Tara. "Apart from Willow she's the most intelligent woman I've ever met. We'll need brains as well as brawn to deal with the First Evil." Besides, she thought Fred needs a little space away from Gunn and Wesley right now.

"Yeah, you can't just punch it out," said Willow still basking in Tara's 'most intelligent woman' comment. "Nothing to punch."

A red Ferrari pulled up behind them and Gwen got out. "Everybody ready to go?" she asked.

"You coming too?" asked Faith. "This is getting to be like a small army."

Gwen shrugged. "Why not, I've got nothing on at the moment, no reason to stick around here. Anyway I've got a friend in Sunnydale who I want to look up."

Wesley, Gunn and Connor came out of the hotel, all of them lending a hand with carrying packages and cases. "Make that a big army," muttered Faith.

Faith and Willow had said their goodbyes to Angel inside. Cordelia and Fred came out after having done the same. They decided to take three cars altogether. Faith would travel with Kennedy, Willow and Tara with Gwen and Fred would drive Cordelia. In view of the visions Cordelia was reluctant to drive herself except in an emergency.

Gunn watched the cars pull away. He kept thinking he should have gone with them but things had been awkward enough with Fred and Gwen the past couple of days. Besides he was needed in LA. The phone had been ringing non-stop that morning once they took off the temporarily closed for business message. He turned and followed Wesley and Connor back into the hotel.

"Did you call Buffy," Tara asked Willow as Gwen pulled away.

"Nope," replied Willow. "I want it to be a surprise. I want you to be a surprise, a big surprise. I didn't want it to be like 'I'm coming home, oh and Tara's coming with me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Seal was exposed in the dirt floor of the basement. Buffy and Wood walked around the edge of it. "I swear we just covered this thing up," she said.

"It doesn't want to stay hidden anymore," said Wood. "It wants to turn these kids into monsters and victims and who knows what."

"It's more than that," said Buffy. "Look, Robin, I, um, I had a vision the other day."

"You have visions?" he asked.

"Sometimes," said Buffy nodding.

"Oh. Well, how do you know that they're not just dreams?" asked Wood.

"You're running to catch the bus naked? That's a dream, army of vicious vampire creatures? That's a vision. Also, I was awake," she explained.

"A bus to where? I mean an army of how many?" asked Wood.

"Hundreds, maybe hundreds of hundreds," said Buffy, "and I think they're all coming out of that very hole. It makes me awfully nervous."

Wood walked over to the seal. "What are you doing?" asked Buffy, alarmed.

"Don't you think we should study it?" he asked kneeling on the seal, "really study it close up?"

"Well, it looks like a goat with its tongue out. I don't know what that means." said Buffy.

Wood stood up. "I know what you're doing," he said. His eyes were now white. It won't do you any good. You're all going to die." With that he charged at Buffy screaming. Buffy dodged aside and Wood ran into the wall. He staggered back and sat down.

"Robin, are you OK?" asked Buffy.

"Whoa, what happened?" he asked.

"I—I think it was controlling you," explained Buffy.

"Buffy, we've got to get rid of this seal. We've got to shut it down before it starts affecting everyone," said Wood.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The hugging and the crying were over. Piper and Phoebe had finally been able to contact Prue and Paige had at last met her eldest sister. Then came the questions:

"So where is this place Prue," asked Phoebe. "It looks like the proverbial desert island."

"And why are you here?" asked Piper. "It looks nice but it must be boring after a while."

"You're not really dead are you?" asked Paige.

"How did you get here?" asked Prue. "I didn't think anybody would be able to find me."

"We did a spell," explained Phoebe, "we did a Power of Three spell to take us to wherever you were."

Prue smiled at Paige. "So you managed to redo the Power of Three. When I saw the three of you together I hoped you had."

"Did you fake your own death Prue," asked Piper. "Why would you do that?"

"I'd better explain what happened right from the start," said Prue. "We've probably got plenty of time to talk."

Prue's sisters exchanged glances with each other wondering what Prue meant but they all decided to let her get on with her explanation rather than ask more questions.

Prue explained about their fight with the demon Shax. Phoebe and Piper remembered their part in it of course but Paige only knew general details and had not wanted to ask her sisters questions about such a painful time. What Phoebe and Piper did not know was that the whole Shax fight was a set up.

Some two weeks previously the sisters had been contacted by the Source who had found out about Paige. He had kidnapped Paige and suggested a deal otherwise he would kill her. The sisters had checked with Leo and their mother's ghost and confirmed that Paige was indeed their sister. What the Source wanted was for Prue to surrender to him, in effect commit suicide, in exchange for which he would release Paige unharmed.

The sisters had realised that they could not accept such a deal because it would break the Power of Three and allow the Source to kill the remaining sisters afterwards. They therefore proposed a different deal. Subject to certain safeguards they would break the Power of Three, and in exchange the Source would release Paige.

The sisters had argued about whether it should be Prue to make the sacrifice. Both Piper and Phoebe had volunteered but the Source insisted it be the eldest sister as that, he thought, would give him the greatest advantage.

To safeguard the deal the Source had to agree to a spell which made him and his minions forget about Paige, in fact forget about the whole deal and Prue had to leave and break the Power of Three. The sisters had thought this would mean Prue's death but the Source realised that even after her death she could be contacted by her sisters and they could therefore from time to time still work magic with the Power of Three. He therefore proposed an alternative.

The deal finally agreed involved Prue appearing to die, Paige being released and everybody, on both sides, forgetting about what had happened. The exception to the forgetting was Leo and the Elders who would soon know that Prue was not dead because she had not moved on. That would have unravelled the whole deal. Leo and the Elders plus anybody they allowed the sisters to summon, were therefore required not to speak about what had happened even though they knew all the details.

"But Leo could have said something after we got rid of the Source," said Phoebe. "By then everybody knew about Paige anyway."

"He couldn't you know," said Piper. "Once a Whitelighter or the elders agree to something like that they have to stick to it."

"If they didn't then nobody would trust any other agreements they tried to make in the future," said Prue. "Leo explained all this to me at the time. It's like a witch doing just a little dark magic. It's not the act itself but what it could lead to once the first step has been taken."

None of this impressed Phoebe who mentally likened it to the elders' stance on good and bad witches. From what she could see, by being inflexible the elders caused a great deal of evil anyway. She said no more however as this was not the time and place to debate the ethical standpoint of Angels.

"So instead of dying you were sent here," said Paige. "Which raises the question, where exactly is here?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Look, I know she's got a Ferrari, but you're not starting a race," said Faith. "The police already want me and we're not going to do anything to attract their attention. Stick to the limit. If she goes past you again let her go."

Kennedy sighed and eased off the gas. To her surprise Gwen remained behind her. I wonder if she's getting an earful from Willow and Tara she thought. Willow is one scary...

Suddenly the passenger door of the car ahead opened and a body fell out. Kennedy swerved and braked to a halt down the road. Gwen and Fred braked their cars and stopped behind. All three cars had braked past the body which, it turned out wasn't a dead body but was very much alive, but injured.

Tara was the first to the injured girl and immediately used her healing power to repair the injuries. She helped the girl sit up. The others crowded around as Tara asked questions.

It was soon established that the girl, named Shannon was a potential on her way to Buffy's. She had been chased by Bringers when she was picked up by a passing car driven by a man in a dog collar who called himself Caleb. He said the Bringers were working for him. He had burnt Shannon, knifed her and then kicked her out of the car with a message for the original Slayer that he had something of hers.

"The original slayer eh," said Faith now doubly angry with this preacher. She turned to Kennedy. "OK, you want to drive fast. Think you can catch that guy?"

"I know I can catch that guy," said Kennedy smiling. The two slayers ran back to Kennedy's car. Kennedy sped away.

"We'd better get after them," said Willow. "It might be a trap." Cordelia and Fred helped the now healed but still stunned Shannon into Fred's car and Willow and Tara joined Gwen once more. Both cars then set off after the Slayers who had already disappeared down the road.

Caleb continued happily on his way singing to himself. Next to him sat Buffy, or rather The First in the form of Buffy. "All go according to plan?" she asked. "You didn't kill the girl?"

"Not quite," Caleb answered cheerfully. "Her time will be soon, just like all the others."

The First smiled and vanished. Caleb started to sing again when suddenly a car moved past him and swung in abruptly to force him off the road and to a halt. "Well perhaps not entirely according to plan," he said to himself. "But a little fun before supper won't go amiss."


	11. Counterattack

**Chapter Eleven - Counterattack**

The Scooby Gang were sat and stood around the Summers front room. Present were Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Giles, Anya and Amy plus all the potentials: Annabelle, Molly, Vi, Rona, Sophie and two more newly arrived, Caridad and Colleen. Also present was Robin Wood.

"We've got to close that seal and we've got to do it tonight," said Buffy. "Any ideas about how we go about it?"

"A seal like that is opened with blood," said Anya. "You'll probably need blood, the right sort of blood, to close it."

Giles was sat in one of the armchairs engrossed in research. He looked up and spoke to Buffy. "Is this it?" he asked pointing to an illustration in his book.

Buffy moved to look over Giles' shoulder at the book. Wood took the opportunity to do the same. "That's it," she confirmed and Wood nodded. "What does it say about it?

"It's the Seal of Danzalthar," said Giles reading from the book. "Mystic seal...doorway to other dimensions...created by dark magic...very dangerous...That's it. Nothing here about how to close it or get rid of it."

"Danzalthar!" said Dawn who was already flipping through another book. "I saw something...Ah yes, Danzalthar: Dark magician of the eighth century. Thought to be responsible for introducing a demon plague into the Byzantine Empire. Caused many cases of insanity and demon worship. The plague was ended when he died after being cursed by Saint Nicophorus of Chalcedon."

"So that's it," said Xander. "All we need is to find a saint, and a curse. Trouble is we're a little short of saints these days. Perhaps I should call New Orleans?"

"He might have been thought a saint because he got rid of this magician," said Wood. "We probably just need a suitable curse. I don't suppose it's in that book?" Dawn shook her head.

"Knowing the curse might not be enough anyway. The magician in our case is probably The First itself," said Giles. "A curse to banish a human magician might not be enough to get rid of The First Evil."

"Any ideas Amy?" asked Buffy wishing Willow was there but not saying so.

"I'm thinking along the same lines as Anya," said Amy. "Blood. I'm thinking it's like a disease, a plague like it says in that book. We need to kill those infected, those Bringers, and use their blood to close the seal."

"Those are pupils and other innocent victims," said Wood. "There must be some way we can do this without killing them, some way to heal them."

"Slayers blood has worked in the past," said Buffy thinking of Glory's portal. "Slayer's blood has closed a portal..."

"No!" said Dawn. "You're not doing that again. I won't let you. Anyway we need you."

There was a chorus of agreement from Giles, Xander and Anya and questioning looks from the potentials and Wood.

"I'm not going to kill myself Dawn," said Buffy. "It might only take a few drops. I won't bleed myself to death, I promise."

"And if it doesn't work?" asked Xander.

"Then we start killing Bringers," said Buffy. "And if that doesn't work we try to contact Willow. For now grab your weapons. We're off to the Hellmouth."

"Not me," said Anya. "I'd better stay here. I'm still a demon. If I get too close to the Hellmouth you'll find me fighting on the other side."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Faith and Kennedy got out of the car immediately it stopped to find that Caleb had already exited his car and was stood waiting for them.

"The witch and the slayer, but which is the witch?" he asked with a smirk on his face. "Not that it matters. You'll all come to your punishment in time." Abruptly Kennedy attacked, moving fast and striking out with both fists followed by a high kick. "Although some will come sooner than others," continued Caleb moving quickly back and to the side to avoid the blows.

Suddenly Caleb stepped inside Kennedy's guard and hit her a savage blow which propelled her ten feet backwards and into some bushes. He turned towards Faith. "So you must be the witch," he said. "Have you got some of those wicked spells, the ones you like to use against your friends?"

Faith had been surprised by the seriousness of Kennedy's attack against what had seemed to be an ordinary human being. Kennedy however had been attacking the person who claimed to be in charge of the Bringers. She knew that Bringers had killed her watcher and was glad to be able to take on the person to blame for it.

Faith had been even more surprised by how easily Caleb had dealt with Kennedy. She now knew that she had to be careful with this character, who was very much not what he seemed. From his chattering he thought he was faced with a slayer and Willow, not with two slayers.

Faith began muttering and waving her hands around to deceive Caleb into believing she was trying to cast a spell. "None of that," he said moving forward very quickly to hit Faith. Or he would have hit Faith but she was ready for him and moved quickly aside and caught him totally by surprise with a combination right and left which knocked him clean over the hood of his car into the road.

Faith darted around the car to follow up before Caleb recovered but was surprised to find that he had recovered inhumanly quickly and found herself dodging his blows and moving backwards as fast as she could.

Now it was Caleb's turn to be surprised again because Kennedy, as a slayer, had recovered almost immediately and now rejoined the fight. She did not close with Caleb however but threw two heavy rocks at him in quick succession causing him to back away from Faith in order to avoid them.

For the first time Caleb realised he was facing two slayers. The thought both exhilarated and worried him but for the first time he thought of retreat. As he backed away another car pulled in tight up against the rear of his car preventing any possibility of it being reversed away. The glance to his rear was nearly fatal for Caleb as he was now faced with both slayers coming at him at once.

Kennedy now used a tree branch as a club, while Faith circled to her left and attacked from the other side. Caleb managed to dodge the blows but found it impossible to launch an attack of his own as he retreated. Suddenly he was struck by a prolonged flow of electricity sent into his back by Gwen and he fell to his knees. Defenceless he lost consciousness as Kennedy hit him a stunning blow with her club.

Faith and Kennedy stood back from the fallen preacher but Gwen walked forward for a closer look. "Stay back," said Faith to Gwen who stopped and moved back. "Whatever he is he's not human. He might not be out for long."

"He's linked to the First," said Tara walking up to stand beside Gwen. "I can feel the evil. We need to break the link, now." She turned to Willow and they clasped hands. "Follow my lead," she continued and began chanting. After a few moments Willow joined in.

As Willow and Tara continued to chant Caleb began recovering consciousness and rolled up onto his knees. Faith was now armed with an axe from the car and Kennedy still had the tree branch. The two slayers together with Gwen stood in a circle around Caleb ready to deal with any further attack.

Caleb appeared to be completely unharmed "You know you could have killed me," he said. "That's just not very friendly. But never mind I'll..."

Suddenly Caleb put his hands to his head and screamed, turning to the two witches.

"What have you done? What have you done? It's gone! Bring it back. You must..." Suddenly he screamed and collapsed on the ground. He shook violently as smoke began to pour from his body. Finally the body was still but it continued to disintegrate before their eyes until it was no more.

Cordelia, Fred and Shannon were witnesses to the final rites, Shannon standing with a grim smile as Caleb was destroyed. "My watcher said I'd know evil when I saw it and she was right. That was pure evil," she said.

"That's a pretty powerful spell," said Willow to Tara. "Where did you learn that?"

"It wasn't the spell that destroyed him," explained Tara. "The spell took away the link to the First Evil. He was so totally consumed by it there was practically nothing else left, not enough to stay alive anyway."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy, the Scooby Gang and the Potentials arrived at the school. The first attack came from three crazed students just inside the hallway. Buffy took the first out with a punch. Xander found himself wrestling with a tall slim young man wielding a baseball bat. The man was strong, obviously an athlete and it was all Xander could do to hang onto the bat to prevent it being used on him.

A girl student jumped at Wood but he was able to avoid her rush and push her into the group of potentials following. Rona took her out with a punch to the jaw, in imitation of Buffy but then yelled and shook her hand in pain. Meanwhile Buffy picked up the man wrestling with Xander and tossed him up against the wall of the corridor from which he recoiled unconscious.

"OK," said Buffy. "Giles, Amy, Robin, you're with me. Xander, Dawn, you and the potentials keep this area clear."

Xander posted himself at the entrance doors with Molly and Caridad. Vi and Annabelle went to the top of the stairs whilst the other potentials fanned out down the corridor to the door leading to the basement.

Buffy's team reached the door of the basement with Dawn. "We'll keep the door open," said Dawn, "if you need help yell."

"And if you need help you yell," replied Buffy.

Buffy's team now entered the basement, went down the stairs and walked towards the seal. As they approached they could see that the basement was occupied. There seemed to be a couple of dozen Bringers between them and the seal. Buffy stopped. "More behind," said Giles who turned with Wood to face a group of five Bringers coming behind them.

"Magic would be quite useful right now," said Buffy pointedly to Amy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gwen listened to Willow's directions to Buffy's house as she drove through the streets of Sunnydale but she didn't really need them because she never lost sight of Kennedy and Faith up ahead. "Just keep on this way and we'll be there in a few minutes," said Willow.

Gwen became aware of Fred flashing her lights on and off behind them. Fred also began sounding her horn almost continuously. "Looks like Fred wants us to stop," she said.

"I'll find out what she wants," said Tara who then disappeared in a flash of light. Gwen, catching this in the corner of her mirror swerved briefly before regaining control of the car. "She does that a lot doesn't she?" she asked Willow.

"She does lately," said Willow smiling and feeling proud of her girl. Nobody else has a girlfriend who does that she thought. But then again, Tara always was special.

Tara appeared in the car behind, alongside Shannon on the back seat. Shannon nearly jumped through the roof of the car. Fred was so intent on driving, flashing her lights and sounding the horn that she didn't notice Tara's arrival until she spoke.

"So what's up," asked Tara.

"How do you do that?" asked Cordelia turning round. "Is it something to do with coming back from the dead?" This caused Shannon to stare at Tara all over again.

"In a way," said Tara not elaborating further. "What's going on?"

"Cordy had another vision," said Fred.

"This one's urgent," said Cordelia. "We've got to go to the school, the new High School. It's where the old school used to be. Tell the others to stop and I'll explain it to everybody." Tara disappeared.

"Are you OK," Cordelia asked Shannon. "This must be a lot to take in all at once."

"N, no," replied Shannon. "I'm fine. I'm just glad that some of the scary guys are on our side for a change."

Tara now did her appearing act in Kennedy's car up front. As she materialised she found a knife at her throat. Faith had reacted with slayer speed to the unexpected. As soon as she saw it was Tara she put her knife away.

After Tara's explanation Kennedy pulled in to the side of the road followed by Gwen and Fred. Everybody went over to Cordelia to hear what was happening.

"It's Buffy," said Cordelia, "well Buffy and the whole gang, and some more of these potential slayers. They're at the new school trying to shut the Hellmouth and they need our help."

"How are they going to do it?" asked Willow.

"Blood magic," replied Cordelia. "Amy's going to do a spell with some of Buffy's blood."

"They can't do that," cried Willow in alarm. "It'll break the Hellmouth wide open. Blood opens not closes. We've got to get there as quickly as we can."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn stood by the door to the basement listening intently. Suddenly she heard the noise of a fight from below. "Stay here," she said to Colleen and Rona. "Sophie, come with me!" Sophie was armed with a crossbow which Dawn thought might come in handy.

Over by the entrance doors Xander saw Dawn and Sophie go to into the basement and started off in that direction. "Xander," called Molly urgently. "Look!"

Xander turned back and looked through the glass doors to see a large group of students gathering outside and beginning to come towards the doors. There were maybe twenty or thirty people out there with more on the way and they had every appearance of turning into an aggressive mob.

"Xander!" called Vi running down the stairs with Annabelle right behind her. "Bringers up there, they're coming."

Xander knew they couldn't fight all the approaching enemies. They'd be overwhelmed, especially without Buffy to help. But he couldn't leave the school with Buffy, Dawn and the others still in the basement. He had to protect their rear.

Xander quickly made up his mind. "Come with me," he ordered and ran down the corridor towards the basement. He led all the remaining potentials into the basement and looked around for something to block the door.

"Use this," said Annabelle giving him her lightweight axe. Xander wedged this across the door handle making it impossible to enter the basement until the axe was removed or the door was broken down.

"Go down there and help," Xander said to the potentials. "This'll hold for a while. I'll shout if I want you to come back."

Wood and Giles tried to deal with the five Bringers coming from behind whilst Amy and Buffy dealt with the threat coming from in front. However five to two were poor odds. Wood knocked one enemy down quickly with a sudden kick and then swung his axe to keep two more at bay. Giles meanwhile had no time to aim his crossbow so he threw it at one Bringer and attacked another with his fists. He succeeded in downing one opponent temporarily but then staggered backwards with a knife in his ribs from the other Bringer.

Amy started forward chanting towards the large group of Bringers in front of them. The Bringers stopped and then slowly began to back away. Suddenly Giles fell to his knees holding his bleeding wound and Buffy decided she had to take a chance. She hoped Amy could keep the enemies in front at bay, at least for a while and turned to join the fight behind.

Buffy quickly took out the two Bringers in front of Giles. She didn't hold back. Whoever they used to be they were fighting for evil now and they'd hurt Giles. When the Slayer hit them they stayed hit. Although possessed by the First Evil they were still basically human and did not have the resilience or the strength of vampires or demons.

While Buffy was doing this Wood was in trouble. He had been able to keep his two opponents at bay with his axe but hadn't been able to damage them. However his third opponent was now back on his feet. All three Bringers had their knives out and were ready to launch a simultaneous attack.

One of the Bringers suddenly fell forward with a crossbow bolt in his back. The other two turned as Dawn screamed a battle cry and ran forward with her sword in her hand. Wood took the chance to take down one Bringer with his axe, thankful that it was nobody he recognised. Dawn closed with the other who dodged aside only to be felled by Sophie's second bolt.

Realising that the threat from behind was no more Buffy immediately turned back in the other direction to see...nobody. No Amy, no Bringers, nothing. She turned to Dawn as the other potentials arrived. Giles was now in a bad way and laid out on the ground. Buffy and Dawn knelt beside him.

"There's more up there," said Vi breathlessly, "lots of them and lots of crazy students as well. Xander's got the door barricaded."

Buffy mentally tried to sum up the situation. Amy, I've got to help Amy, but I can't leave Giles and Xander...

Glittering lights appeared in front of her in the direction that Amy had gone. They coalesced to reveal Willow and Tara standing in front of her.

"Willow...Tara?" said Dawn standing up and starting forward but Buffy jumped forward and grabbed her to hold her back.

"That may not be Willow and Tara," said Buffy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"No magic?" asked Phoebe. "Do you mean you can't do magic here or do you mean nobody can do magic here?"

"The arrangement was that I would be in a place with no magic," said Prue. "I suppose that means nobody can do magic but you'd better try yourselves."

The three younger sisters tried to use their powers, without success. Even Paige's orbing didn't work. They tried a Power of Three spell to take the four of them back home but that didn't work either.

"There must be some way out," said Paige. "We found our way in, it's logical that there's a way out."

"But it might be a one way door," said Phoebe. "It lets you in but it doesn't open the other way."

"Have you tried to leave here without magic," asked Piper. "I mean you're like a castaway. This is an island right? Have you tried building a raft?"

"For a long time I did nothing," explained Prue, "because I didn't want to upset the deal. I didn't know you guys and Paige would find each other and reform the Power of Three. I couldn't take the chance that me going back would allow the Source to remember Paige and kill her."

"Well, you don't have to worry about the Source anymore," said Piper. "He's dead and gone. We killed him."

"Several times," said Paige. She explained about the sisters' fights with the Source and how they had finally triumphed. Prue congratulated her sisters, particularly Paige. "I can see you're an asset to the team," she said smiling. "With your Whitelighter legacy you're probably stronger than me."

"Did you try a raft?" asked Phoebe.

"Eventually I got bored and started exploring to see what I could do," Prue continued. "This is an island but it's not anywhere in the world we know, or if it is, it's been changed. For one thing it's always midday here, for another the sun always shines and it never rains, but there's no shortage of water. I haven't got to the stage of thinking about a raft."

"Not in over two years?" said Piper. "I'd have thought you'd have built a fleet of rafts by now."

"Two years!" said Prue astonished. "Not two years. I could have sworn it's only been a few weeks."

"A problem with having no night time perhaps," suggested Paige.

"There's still my body clock," said Prue. I most definitely have not had near enough sleep periods for two years."

"It may be part of the way this place is set up," suggested Phoebe. "Time may go more slowly here than back home. What's one day here may be a week back there. It sounds more and more to me as if this place is run on magic, or has been set up by magic, powerful magic and it gives me an idea about how to get home."


	12. Reunion

**Chapter Twelve - Reunion**

Willow walked forward towards Buffy holding her hands out. "It is me," she said, "the real me, I'm not the First. Feel! I'm corporeal."

Buffy took Willow's hands. She feels real she thought, unless this is another trick of the First so close to the Hellmouth.

"Giles!" said Tara noticing him lying on the ground with his hand over the bloody wound in his chest. She rushed to his side, fell to her knees and put her hand above the wound. A glowing light appeared on the wound and the damage repaired itself.

Giles pulled himself up to a sitting position and looked at where the wound had been and then looked at his hand, still covered in his own blood. Even the rent in his shirt was no longer there. "It's stopped hurting, how did you...Tara? Is that really you? Did Willow really find you?" he asked and started to get up.

"Stay there for a few minutes," said Tara putting her hand on his shoulder. "I've repaired the wound but you're still suffering from shock and you've lost some blood. In answer to your question, yes it really is me, Willow did find me."

Dawn rushed over to Tara and hugged her as hard as she could. Tara smiled at Willow and Buffy over Dawn's shoulder. When it seemed that Dawn would never let go Buffy stepped forward and gently pulled her back.

"This is so wonderful but we'll have to put off the explanations until we're out of here," said Buffy. "Right now I've got to find Amy." Buffy explained quickly to Willow that Amy was working with them but had disappeared with some bringers while the fighting was going on. Meanwhile Tara did a healing on Wood to deal with a shoulder that he had wrenched swinging the axe.

"I'll go with you," said Willow. "We've got to stop Amy doing any blood magic. It'll only make things worse. Blood opens, not closes. We've got to find some other way to close the seal."

Buffy turned to Dawn and the waiting potentials. "You all better go back and help Xander guard that door," she said. "Take Giles with you."

"It might be better if I stay with you," said Giles getting up. "I'm all right now and you may need my help at the seal." Buffy nodded.

"Dawn had better come too," said Willow smiling. "You never know when a key might come in handy."

"I'll see if I can do a spell to help block that door," said Tara, "at least until the cavalry gets here." She turned to Willow. "If you need me just call my name, I'll hear you and come as quickly as I can." She walked quickly away followed by the potentials.

"The cavalry?" asked Buffy as she and the others started off in the other direction.

"We've got a few friends coming to help," explained Willow thinking that the word 'friends' was stretching things a little as far as Faith was concerned.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kennedy drove through the streets of Sunnydale towards where Faith told her she would find the High School. Gwen drove behind, alone now that Tara had taken Willow away. She was followed by Fred with Cordelia and Shannon.

A young blonde haired woman ran towards them on the right hand side of the road. Behind her were a half dozen pursuers. Kennedy braked to a halt and jumped out with Faith. The woman, seeing the car stopping stopped herself and was almost immediately caught by a couple of her pursuers and knocked to the ground.

Faith and Kennedy knocked the first two pursuers aside and then faced the four others side by side. As far as they could tell they were dealing with humans, crazy deranged humans but humans. In fact the assailants looked to be High School students so the slayers pulled their punches accordingly.

The fight was very short, a few well aimed blows being sufficient to discourage the students who ran off having decided to seek easier prey elsewhere. Faith and Kennedy turned back to find that their companions were now standing over the blonde young woman who was busy straightening out her hair.

"You look vaguely familiar," said Faith to the blonde on the ground.

"She should," said Cordelia. "She was at school with me, Willow and Buffy. Her name's Harmony Kendall and she's a vampire."

"Please don't tell me we just saved a vampire from humans," said Kennedy rolling her eyes. "Well at least I can put that right," she added pulling out a wooden stake from her pocket and starting forward.

Harmony quickly scrambled to her feet and hid behind Cordelia. "Cordy, I'm your friend," she whined. We've always been friends," she pleaded, not entirely accurately. "I can help you."

"She's not a vampire with a soul like Angel is she?" asked Fred. Shannon gave her a curious look because she had never heard of vampires with souls.

"No," said Cordelia. "Harmony's your standard, soulless bloodsucking fiend. She's a little more timid than most but give her half a chance and she'll drain your blood as fast as any other vampire."

"So how can you help us?" Faith asked Harmony.

"Apart from reducing the vampire population by one," said Kennedy brandishing her stake.

"I can tell you about Drusilla and what she's up to," said Harmony. "If you don't stake me," she added.

"We don't have time to stand around here asking questions," said Gwen. "We're needed elsewhere."

Faith walked over to Harmony. "If you know something then spill it, if not," Faith looked at Kennedy who held up her stake.

"Once I tell you what I know you'll stake me," complained Harmony.

"She doesn't know anything," said Kennedy starting forward once again only to be stopped by Cordelia who held up her hand.

"No, she knows about Drusilla," said Cordelia. "Drusilla's very dangerous, she killed Kendra. Kendra was the slayer before Faith. I think I can..."

Cordelia grabbed Harmony's arm tightly causing Harmony to cry out, "Ow, you're hurting me." Cordelia however kept hold and now her arm was glowing. The glow spread from Cordelia's arm to Harmony's arm and soon both women were glowing. Faith, Kennedy, Fred, Gwen and Shannon stood back in wonder and tried to understand what was going on.

The glow slowly dimmed and then went out altogether. Harmony slumped to the ground with her hands over her face crying. "What have you done," she cried, "what have you done?"

"What have you done Cordy," asked Fred. Suddenly Cordelia slumped and would have fallen to the ground had Faith not moved quickly and caught her. Faith picked up Cordelia in her arms and took her over to Fred's car and lay her down in the back.

Meanwhile Kennedy circled Harmony with a puzzled expression on her face. She felt in her pocket and then suddenly put her hand to Harmony's forehead. Harmony made to brush away Kennedy's hand but Kennedy withdrew it and looked at the cross that she had held against Harmony. "You're not a vampire any more," she said.

"What?" said Faith coming back from the car.

"She's not a vampire anymore, she's human," said Kennedy.

"Perhaps Cordelia really is some sort of 'Higher Being'" said Gwen.

Faith pulled Harmony to her feet and took her over to Fred's car. They found that Harmony did now have a heartbeat and seemed to be entirely human. After a short discussion it was agreed that as Harmony no longer seemed to be dangerous they would leave her in Fred's charge and Fred would take her and Cordelia to Buffy's house. Faith, Kennedy, Gwen and Shannon would continue on to see how they could help at the High School.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The rhythmic beating on the door was having some effect. The door was now visibly rattling on its hinges and would not last for much longer. The sound of fighting below had stopped a few minutes ago. Hope that's good news thought Xander.

Xander had decided to yell out a warning when the door started falling in. He had placed himself so that he would be clear of the falling door and in a good position to use his axe on the first one or two to come through. After that there'll be bodies in their way so I might be able to keep them back for a while he thought. I hope it's Bringers and not students that come through first.

Xander heard people approaching from below. Soon he saw Vi and Rona and the other potentials coming up the stairs. Looks like good news he thought. They don't seem to be running away from anything. Wait a minute, that's not a potential, that's...Tara!

Xander was so happy to see Tara that he had given her a quick hug before he gave a thought to whether it might be the First Evil. As he let Tara go he realised he already had the answer to that question.

"Is Willow with you?" he asked. "Is she all right?"

"Willow's fine. She's downstairs helping Buffy," Tara explained. "And before you ask, everybody else down there's OK. Everybody apart from Amy that is, they seem to have lost her."

Another blow on the door rattled it severely. It now seemed to be on its last legs. Tara broke off speaking to Xander and put her hand on the door. She began to chant. The blows to the door continued but the noise they made gradually reduced in volume as Tara finished her chant. Tara stood back. The door itself no longer rattled but seemed to be as firm as it had been originally. The banging on the door stopped. The effect of Tara's spell seemed to have disconcerted whoever was on the other side. After a short delay however the banging resumed again.

"That won't stop them forever but it might give us another half hour or so," said Tara.

The potentials were now clustered around the door. "I can keep..." began Tara but she was interrupted by Buffy who was now coming up the stairs.

"We couldn't shut it," said Buffy. "Willow can't hold them back for long. We need to get that door open now and take our chances out there before all those Uber-vamps get here." The reference to Uber-vamps caused a worried muttering amongst the potentials.

Xander started to pull away the axe that was baring the door but Tara put her hand on his arm. "Wait a minute," she said. "I've got an idea." Tara went down the steps towards Buffy.

"Buffy, do you think you could..." began Tara who then broke off what she was saying to toss a small jar at Buffy that she had taken out of her pocket. The jar passed right through 'Buffy' and broke against the wall behind her.

"It's the First," cried Molly backing up the stairs away from Buffy/the First.

"OK," said Buffy/The First. "Stay here and die." With that she vanished.

"I need to fetch help," said Tara and abruptly disappeared in a shower of light.

"Doesn't anybody walk anymore? asked Xander of nobody in particular.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It all a question of power," Phoebe said. "Which is stronger, our power or the power of whoever set this up."

"Well if that's the case we already know it's stronger than the Power of Three," said Paige.

"I think Phoebe's thinking more on the lines of the Power of Four," said Prue.

Phoebe smiled at her eldest sister. I'd better get used to Prue knowing what I'm up to all over again she thought. She always could read me.

"I'm also thinking about the way this place is set up," said Phoebe. "I can't believe we're in another world, or another dimension. This eternal daylight isn't right. Besides, all these plants, the insects, everything, I think we're still on Earth. I think another world would be more alien somehow."

"So you're saying there's some sort of barrier separating this place from the rest of the world," asked Piper, "something that prevents us doing magic."

"I think so, I mean why take more risks than you have to?" explained Phoebe. "If Prue was on some other world who knows what she might have met there? She might even have been killed and then we would have been able to contact her."

"But if this barrier is blocking us off from using magic it doesn't matter how strong it is we don't have our magic to get rid of it," said Paige.

"I don't think it quite works that way," said Phoebe, "or at least I hope it doesn't. One sort of magic involves casting spells and calling on outside powers. We do that but we also have power of our own. That should still be with us and with the four of us working together I'm hoping it'll be strong enough to break through."

"But we lost our powers when we went back in time," said Prue. "We might simply be somewhere like that where we don't have our powers."

"Yeah, remember, I couldn't freeze things, Prue couldn't move things," said Piper, "just like now."

"I think that's different," said Phoebe. "When we go back in time we go back to before our powers were triggered. We still have the power inside but we can't use it. I think if we'd stayed in the past for long enough we'd have been able to trigger our powers."

"Well let's find out," said Paige. "We'll soon know if you're right."

"Maybe not," said Prue. "We should be prepared to keep pushing for as long as we can. This barrier might hold up for a while but only give way if we keep the pressure up for a long time."

"On the good side it was only made to keep in one of the charmed ones, not all four of us," said Phoebe.

"Hey, we need a new chant," said Piper. " 'The Power of Three will set us free' doesn't do it now there are four of us."

"How about "'The Power of Four is so much more,'" suggested Paige. The others were unimpressed. "Well it rhymes." she added. "Anyway as long as we all chant the same thing to focus it doesn't really matter does it? But what'll we do if it doesn't work?"

"Anybody know how to build a raft?" asked Piper.

The sisters made themselves comfortable sitting in a circle holding hands. They then began to chant, "The Power of Four...

Ten minutes later the sisters were still chanting. They were still on the island, the sun was still shining...Yes, thought Phoebe, the sun was still shining but the shadows were lengthening, it wasn't midday anymore. Prue had noticed as well and she smiled at Phoebe.

Very soon all of the sisters knew that they were having some affect as the sun went down and it became dark, the wind began to blow and it began raining. The rain stopped as quickly as it had begun and then it was daylight again. Now the sun simply raced across the sky and day and night followed one another in quick succession.

From where she was sitting Piper could see the tides race up and down the beach. Crabs shot past like grand prix cars, in and out of the water.

To Paige, looking at the trees it was as if the whole forest was been shaken by a non-stop earthquake. It was even possible to see small plants shoot up, flower and then die away, all in the space of a few minutes.

Suddenly it all stopped. They were still on the beach but it was early morning, birds were singing and the air smelled as if it had just stopped raining.

"Well we did something," said Piper. "Did we do enough?"

The unmistakable sight of an orb in progress appeared in front of the sisters as they got to their feet. Leo stood in front of them. Piper went straight over and embraced him and then stood back.

"Hi Prue," said Leo. "Good to see you again."

Prue gave Leo a quick hug and then turned to her sisters. "I think this means the door's open," she said. "Let's go home."

Paige took Phoebe's hand, Leo held onto Piper and Prue and they orbed away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Amy stood looking at the seal in front of her. It was still closed but it wasn't dormant, oh no. Amy could feel the evil coming up from it in waves. At any moment she expected something really awful to open the seal from below and come up.

Amy looked at the Bringers gathered around the seal. There were five of them on their knees, one at each point of the pentagram. There must be a couple of dozen others stood behind them she thought, including the two who held her arms.

The five who were kneeling down were carrying out some sort of dark ritual. Amy expected to play a part in the ritual before it finished. She knew all about the type of ritual they were doing. It was usually finished off with a sacrifice and Amy knew very well who they had in mind.

Amy had approached the Bringers with a barrier spell, intending to push them back, or at least keep them at bay for a while. As she walked forward the Bringers had gathered around her and she had lost sight of her companions. She still continued to walk forward, intending to keep as many of them away from Buffy and the others as possible but the strength of her barrier steadily diminished and the Bringers got closer to her.

Amy had realised she could not keep the barrier up for much longer so she had dropped it, intending to save her strength because she knew she'd need it. The surprising thing was that the Bringers around her had shown no sign of hurting her. They hadn't even pulled out those knives of theirs. Two of them took hold of her arms and had kept her moving forward towards the seal where she now stood.

Amy had her exit ready but didn't want to use it unless she really had to. Teleportation spells were unreliable at best, and very painful even if they worked. Doing one right at the Hellmouth might be the last thing she ever did. Where's Buffy she thought. She didn't believe Buffy was dead. Buffy always turns up, even when you don't want her to.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This basement seems to get bigger every time I come down here," said Wood. "I'm sure we should have found the seal before now."

Willow stopped. "Wait," she said and briefly closed her eyes. "This way," she said leading the group off to the left. The group now seemed to be in an underground cave system rather than a school basement. They turned a corner and heard voices ahead.

"We need more light," said Giles. The group had four torches between them but they did not seem to penetrate very far into the surrounding darkness.

"Illuminate!" called Willow and the whole cave lit up around them. Now they could see a large number of people at the other end of what was a fairly large cavern. Buffy started forward with Willow at her side. The cavern was large enough for Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Giles to walk side by side. Wood kept to the rear keeping a watch behind and to each side.

Buffy stopped. The Bringers in front were getting organised but they made no move to go forward to attack the group. They're defending she thought, they're just trying to stop us getting to the seal while they...While they do whatever it is they're doing. "They're trying to keep us back while they open the Hellmouth, "she said.

A light display appeared a little in front of them and Tara joined them once again. How does she do that thought Buffy. I bet she and Willow have an interesting tale to tell.

"I was too late," said Tara. "They broke through, Xander's dead." Willow gasped and put her hand to her mouth but surprisingly Tara didn't go to her.

"Oh no I'm not," said Xander coming up from behind with the potentials. "I'm still alive and kicking."

"Watch out, it's the First," said Tara. "It's taken over the potentials, stop them!"

"I'm not the First," said Xander, "She's the First. That's not Tara."

"No it's not," said the real Tara walking forward from behind the potentials.

"This is soon settled," said Dawn and tossed her torch through the insubstantial form of the first Tara to appear.

Buffy now realised that not all of the women with Xander and Tara were potentials. "Faith?" she said.

"She's on our side," said Willow speaking quickly to avoid any misunderstanding. "I'll explain later."

"Watch out," called Giles who had not stopped watching the Bringers up ahead. "Here they come."

The whole group turned towards the advancing Bringers. "Blow," shouted Willow and a sudden rush of wind blasted towards the Bringers knocking them all to the ground. Buffy led the charge forward to take advantage of the situation.

Willow, holding Tara, the real Tara, by one hand and holding Dawn with her other went straight past the fallen Bringers before they could recover and approached the seal. Giles kept close behind. They could see two Bringers holding Amy and another group kneeling around the seal.

Behind Willow, the Slayers and the potentials gave the fallen Bringers no chance to recover. Buffy was determined not to lose anybody. She went from Bringer to Bringer, kicking. punching and stabbing. She could see Faith and another girl in amongst the Bringers in a similar fury nearby. Xander, Wood and the potentials kept to the outside, picking off Bringers as they tried to escape. Gwen stood aside and periodically sent a bolt of electricity into a Bringer that looked like getting the upper hand with a potential.

Up in front Amy saw the fight develop and then she recognised Willow. She was in two minds. On the one hand she was very pleased to see Willow, she now had real hope that she would survive. On the other hand Willow's return meant Amy was no longer chief witch. She had enjoyed being at the centre of things, being needed. Everything would get back to normal now.

As Willow arrived Amy made her move. She surprised the Bringers holding her by using physical force, not magic. She punched one of the Bringers and kicked the other and darted forward to join Willow, Dawn, Giles and...Tara?

Amy's former captors stood on guard with their knives. Behind them the other five Bringers stood up, their ritual complete. They had not used Amy as a sacrifice but even so it seemed they had done what was necessary to open the Hellmouth. Parts of the seal started to move.

Willow held up her hand, the hand holding Tara's hand and delivered yet another spell. The Bringers fell to the ground stunned. Willow staggered but Tara held her, feeding strength into her.

"Quickly," said Giles. "Everybody take a point of the pentagram," he ordered.

As he spoke Giles went to the other side of the pentagram and stood by a point. Willow, Tara, Amy and Dawn took a point themselves. "What do we..." began Dawn only to stop as she suddenly knew what to do.

Buffy stopped. No more enemies. She looked around and saw Faith looking at her. Faith grinned, the old Faith grin. "Hi B, you're looking good."

"Willow!" called Xander leading a rush towards the seal. "Dawn!" called Buffy following him.

The group approached the seal where they saw Willow, Tara, Dawn, Giles and Amy. All five were stood with their arms outstretched. Lines of force ran from arm to arm, from body to body. The seal was moving, spinning faster and faster until it became a blur. It became hard to see, was it there any longer? No! All five staggered back from where the seal had been. Now there was nothing there but the dirt floor of the basement.

The basement! They were in the basement. No Bringers anymore, not even bodies, no endless caverns. Even the steps, up to the door out of the basement, were clearly visible not very far away.


	13. New Castle

_Authors Note: Darla will appear in this story. In my revision of the Angelverse she did not die when giving birth to Connor. That way I don't have to account for another Darla resurrection._

**Chapter Thirteen: New Castle**

After the big fight in the basement everybody went upstairs and found that the students had returned to normal and the Bringers had disappeared, at least for now. The students were generally wondering what had happened. Most of them assumed that it must have been a terrific party.

Wood and Amy left to go to their own homes with promises to stop by the following day to talk about what to do next. Xander decided he needed to talk to Willow and Tara and walked along with them and Dawn. Dawn chatted to Tara as they walked along asking all about what had happened and how Tara had come to be back with Willow. Buffy sought out Faith.

Faith introduced Kennedy to Buffy and Giles. "You know B if you die and come back a few more times we can have a whole army of slayers," said Faith.

Buffy smiled but it started her thinking. What makes a slayer anyway? Could we make our own from these potentials without anybody dying? She hadn't gotten round to looking through the stuff Wood had given her that he had from his mother. I wonder if that'll give us a clue about where the slayer power comes from she thought.

The slayers and Giles led the procession away from the school. Giles was quietly furious and walked behind the three girls. They did it again, again! After all their promises the last time. The Watchers' Council, specifically Quentin Travers had promised to inform Giles if ever another slayer was called.

Although he had never said anything to Buffy Giles had been very angry that the Council had never told him when Kendra was called and again when Faith had been called. Now he discovered that Kennedy had been called about eighteen months before and once again it had been kept a secret.

Travers of course had been killed along with the other members of the Council. Giles had already been thinking of reforming the Council sometime in the future when the current crisis was resolved. If I have anything to do with it a new Council will be very different to the old one Giles resolved. I wonder what other secrets they were keeping he thought.

"It's not that I'm not glad of the help, I am," said Buffy to Faith, "but what are you doing here? Did you break out?"

Faith explained about the attempt to kill her in prison and why she had decided to leave. "I thought I'd just drop in on Angel before coming here," she said. "But things were jumping in LA so I stayed there a few days."

Buffy questioned Faith about what had happened in LA and in particular whether Angel was all right. Kennedy knew the story already from being there so she dropped behind the other two slayers.

Kennedy knew there must be a history between the two slayers but neither Willow nor Cordelia who she assumed knew all about it had been particularly forthcoming. She had not dared to question Faith herself except for asking Faith why she was in jail. All Faith had said was she was there for murder after making some bad decisions.

Kennedy glanced at Giles who seemed to be engrossed in his own thoughts and decided to speak to the watcher sometime to find out what had happened. At least Buffy seems to be a bit friendlier towards Faith than Willow and Cordy have been she thought. I wonder if they...

Kennedy's train of thought was interrupted by Vi and Molly walking up beside her and the other potentials crowding up behind. "Shannon says you and Faith are both slayers. Is that true?" asked Molly. "I thought there was only one Chosen One," she added, frowning at Giles who didn't notice.

The other potentials made noises amplifying Molly's question. "Are there any more?" asked Rona. "Are we all gonna be slayers?" asked Caridad. "What about the girl with the lightning bolts?" asked Sophie.

"OK," said Kennedy stopping and holding up her hands. "I presume you're all potential slayers. I'm Kennedy the Vampire Slayer..." she started and proceeded to explain how she and Faith had become slayers. She also introduced Gwen before starting off again in pursuit of Buffy and Faith who were still engrossed in their own conversation oblivious to the fact that they had left everybody else behind.

As the group continued their walk Kennedy also introduced Willow and Tara to the potentials. She introduced them as witches and friends of Buffy. She was sure Tara was more than a witch but she left it at that.

Finally, with a diversion to pick up the cars which Kennedy and Gwen had left behind, everybody arrived at the Summers house. This involved more meeting and greeting, this time involving Cordelia, Fred and Anya plus a newly arrived potential from China, Chao-An who had arrived that very evening. Chao-An spoke no English. Fortunately Fred could get by in Mandarin and had already started teaching Chao-An a few basic words of English.

Cordelia, Anya and Fred had already questioned Harmony about what she knew of Drusilla. Not surprisingly for those who knew Harmony it was very little. Drusilla was in town. She had a group of demons working for her and was trying to recruit local vampires to serve her.

Harmony, together with most of the Sunnydale vampires had decided to stay well clear of Drusilla as they knew she was dangerous, unpredictable and above all completely insane. She had however probably managed to recruit approximately half a dozen vampires. Cordelia pointed out that if she wasn't stopped she was likely to try to sire as many vampires as she needed, either directly or via her minions.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Drusilla knelt in front of an altar, a black altar. She had made the sacrifices some time before. Her arms were outstretched and she was singing, off tune and with totally unrecognisable words but singing to complete the dark magic spell.

Darla sat in a chair at the back of the room, bored silly by the whole business. Why do I bother with Drusilla she thought? She's getting worse. Instead of being half mad most of the time she now seems to be completely mad the whole time.

Darla hadn't taken Drusilla's mumblings about this ceremony very seriously but she'd long since learnt to give Drusilla her head when she got a bee in her bonnet like this. The sooner Drusilla acted out her little fantasies the sooner they could get back to having fun. Fun was why she was with Drusilla. Together they were unstoppable and she really wanted to paint this town red, she had a score to settle with a certain slayer.

Drusilla finished her song and pulled herself to her feet. She'd been on her knees for more than two hours and she stretched to ease her stiff joints and muscles. She looked for Darla and found her dozing on her chair at the back of the room. Oh my sweet she thought, you are so going to enjoy this.

"How long will it be?" asked one of the three small demons that were stood behind her. He sounded impatient as if he expected everything to have been over and done with long before this.

Drusilla smiled and turned to the demon. Still smiling she gave him a terrific blow propelling him across the room. He was dead before he hit the wall. "Not enough faith," she declared and then started giggling.

The noise had woken Darla. "All over Dru?" she asked looking around the room. She saw the dead demon but nothing else appeared to have changed. "Didn't it work?"

"Not ready yet," said Drusilla. "Not the right time. Soon, soon, soon..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy stood outside the back door to her house watching Kennedy put the potentials through their paces. Counting Dawn there were twelve of them now although Dawn was upstairs having just got back from school with Buffy. The two new arrivals had turned up together the day before from Europe. Elena from Greece and Ingrid who, despite her name was Spanish. Fortunately both had a good command of English.

Good job everybody's chipping in she thought, otherwise we'd have starved by now. Giles had left for England a few days before. One of the things he intended to try to sort out was access to the funds of the Watchers Council.

Kennedy noticed Buffy standing watching and handed over to Vi. "Dawn back as well?" she asked. Dawn and Kennedy seemed to be getting along pretty well Buffy thought. Kennedy had taken over most of the combat training and Dawn was her unofficial deputy. Having spent so long with a Slayer for a sister Dawn knew more about fighting than any of the other potentials. She seems to be thriving on having a little responsibility thought Buffy.

"She's upstairs," replied Buffy. "She's got some homework to do before tea."

"Have you seen Willow and Tara since you got home?" Kennedy asked. "They want to talk to you about something. I don't know what."

Buffy shook her head. She hadn't seen anybody when she got home. The house was unusually empty considering the number of people staying there. She walked inside followed by Kennedy. "Where is everybody?"

"Anya dropped by," explained Kennedy "She's taken Faith, Cordy and Fred to look at a house."

"A house?" asked Buffy.

"We can't all stay here much longer," said Kennedy. "If the queue for the bathroom gets any longer somebody's gonna die. Anya says the place is a mansion, lots more bedrooms and more bathrooms. We've got three slayers, the witches, Anya... we should be able to defend two places."

Buffy didn't like the idea of splitting their forces, that could be a serious mistake she thought. But a bigger house with more bathrooms, yes, she could go for that. Buffy smiled as she thought of having a bathroom all to herself for as long as she wanted.

"I hope we don't have to think of defending much longer," replied Buffy. "As soon as we find out where Drusilla's hiding we'll make a move. I think the amount of patrolling we're doing is keeping a lid on things for the moment."

While talking to Kennedy Buffy had walked into the kitchen and got the orange juice out to pour into a glass. Willow came into the room. "Buffy hi, have you got a few minutes?" she asked indicating with a movement of her head that she wanted to talk to Buffy upstairs.

"Yeah sure," replied Buffy picking up her glass of juice.

"I'd better get back," said Kennedy returning outside through the back door. Buffy followed Willow upstairs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's great, but are you sure you can afford it," Cordelia asked Anya as they walked away from the house towards the cars.

"I'm sure, as a demon I don't even have to buy food any more. Besides it'll only be a twelve month lease. This whole business will be over by then," explained Anya, one way or the other she mentally added.

"It's in its own grounds so we can set up protection all round," said Faith. "We can clear away the vegetation near the house, give us a clear field of fire."

"There's plenty of storage space. We can stock up on supplies, oh and we'll need our own generator," suggested Fred. "That way if the power goes down we can get it up again straight away. We can be pretty well self contained."

"Getting ready for a siege Fred?" asked Cordelia smiling.

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst," replied Fred. That's how I survived in Pylea she thought. "It's better than holing up in a cave," she added.

As they reached the car Gwen's distinctive Ferrari pulled in behind and Gwen got out. "Sorry I'm late," she said looking up at the house. "It looks a lot more roomy than Buffy's place."

Another woman had got out of the front passenger seat of Gwen's car. "Oh, this is my friend Kate Lockley, Police lieutenant...," began Gwen.

"Hello Kate," said Cordelia. "Big promotion eh? So you went to Sunnydale after leaving LA?"

"I was offered a job," said Kate. "Small town wanted to recruit an experienced big city cop. I thought they wanted my experience as a detective. Turned out they'd heard about my 'other' experiences. They seem to have trouble hanging on to police officers in this town, hence the quick promotion. Since you're here I suppose you already know all about Sunnydale?"

"It's my home town," said Cordelia smiling.

"Why is that not a surprise?" said Kate.

"Well this is all very boring," said Anya, "but I've got a few more interesting things to do. I'll let you know when the place is ready to move in." With that Anya got into her car and drove away, still avoiding the temptation to teleport everywhere, at least most of the time.

Gwen introduced Fred and started to introduce Faith.

"We've met," said Faith folding her arms and giving Kate a blank stare. She had wondered whether Kate would remember her but quite clearly, from her expression she did.

"Even if we hadn't I'd remember you from the sheet that landed on my desk this morning," said Kate. "Are you going to come quietly?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy followed Willow into the room she shared with Tara, Dawn was already there talking to Tara. "So, what's this all about?" Buffy asked.

"Tara will explain," said Willow as everybody found somewhere to sit. "She's noticed something."

"It's about Faith," said Tara. "You probably remember the first time I met her, she was in your body." Buffy nodded. "I knew something was wrong because her energy was all wrong, it was unnatural, fragmented. It was also a little dark, stained in some way."

"There's something wrong with Faith," said Buffy. "I knew it!"

"No, no," said Tara, "there's nothing wrong with Faith. That's just the point. Her energy is perfectly OK. It fact it's very similar to yours."

"So what's the problem?" asked Buffy puzzled.

"There should be something there, something I can read," said Tara pausing to try to find the right words. "Something to show what she did, the crimes she committed."

"You mean everything we do, all the bad things we do, show up on this, this aura?" asked Dawn. "What is it, is it like a stain on the soul?"

"Oh no, no," protested Tara. "It's not that at all. I'm not explaining this very well. Since I came back I can see a lot of things more clearly. I should be able to see something in Faith and I'm not seeing it. I don't know why."

"It's like something, somebody, cleaned her aura," said Willow.

"Redemption?" suggested Dawn, "wouldn't that do it?" Buffy and Willow gave her sceptical looks.

"Up to a point, and with time yes, of course," said Tara. "But from what Willow tells me Faith betrayed you and committed murder. That takes a long time to get over. At the moment it looks like she never did those crimes."

"So what do you suggest?" asked Buffy. "I mean if Faith's now whiter than white what's the problem?"

"The problem is that Faith, and maybe others around here, may not be what we think they are," said Willow. "If something can make Faith look like one of the good guys, when she's not they might be able to change her back just as quickly."

"We have to find out what's going on," said Tara.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Everybody started talking at once. Both Cordelia and Gwen tried to dissuade Kate from arresting Faith who stood back and said nothing. Kate would not be persuaded, insisting that if she stopped doing her duty because of personal friendship she might as well give up being a police officer.

"But Faith was attacked in prison," said Fred. "If she goes back she might be killed."

Kate shook her head, refusing to argue further and Faith smiled. They both knew that if people were released from prison because they were in danger of being attacked whilst inside a large part of the prison population would be let out.

"Can't you at least put this off until this is all over?" asked Cordelia. "We need Faith. People's lives depend on it."

"Until what is all over?" asked Kate, "whose lives?"

In order to reply to Cordelia Kate half turned leaving Faith out of sight for the first time. She immediately took advantage by taking off at full speed into the nearby trees which formed a ring inside the wall of the property. Kate did not see her go.

"Oh come on," said Gwen diverting Kate's attention a little more away from where Faith had been standing. "You told me yourself that a lot of people were leaving town and you didn't know why. You know something bad is building up here. You feel it as much as anybody else."

"Faith is here to fight it," said Fred. "And we're here to help her."

"You need a murderer...Where'd she go?" said Kate pulling her gun from her purse. She circled the cars and looked underneath. "Where'd she go?"

"Just a little magic," said Cordelia. "Did you know I could do magic now?"

Kate ignored what she took to be a joke and pulled out her cellphone and pressed speed dial for the police station. Gwen sent a spark from her finger into the cellphone which immediately went dead. "It's a bad area around here for cellphones," she said.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Having eaten, Fred and Gwen were chatting in Buffy's front room. Gwen was ready to go out on patrol and was waiting for the two potentials assigned to her. Fred was at a loose end.

"Why did you bring Kate along anyway?" asked Fred. "Didn't you know the police were looking for Faith?"

"No, I didn't," said Gwen. "Nobody thought to mention that little detail to me."

"Um, sorry. So how did you meet the lady cop anyway?" asked Fred. "I thought you were, you know, a criminal yourself."

"She arrested me," said Gwen, "caught me red-handed coming out of a store. I was young and stupid then."

"So what happened?" asked Fred. "Did you go to jail?"

"Juvenile first offence, probation," said Gwen, "only time I've ever been caught."

"So how does that make you friends?" asked Fred.

"On the way to the station she saw a gang fight and being Kate she stopped to break it up," explained Gwen. "I lent a hand. She spoke for me at my hearing. We've done each other favours ever since."

"I'd have thought you could have gotten away from her," commented Fred, "what with your electric sparks and such."

"I wasn't that stupid," said Gwen. "Sure, I might have done something if I thought I would go to jail but it wasn't worth running for something like that. Anyway she pulled a gun on me."

"Do you think she'll start a search for Faith?" asked Fred.

Gwen shrugged. "Maybe, but probably not. From what she said the local police are pretty stretched at the moment. I told her Faith's only a danger to the vampires and demons now."

"I suppose she's mad at you?" suggested Fred. "Helping Faith like that."

"Well she might be I suppose...aha, here they are," said Gwen getting up as Shannon and Caridad came into the room. "I'll see you later."

Fred watched Gwen and the others leave and lay back in the chair with a sigh. What was she doing here? They can all fight better than me. Just about the only good she'd done so far was to help Chao-An learn a little English.

Buffy entered the room. "Oh good, I was hoping to find you," she said. "I need your help, if you've got the time, a lot of time."

Fred sat up straight. "I suppose I could fit it into my busy schedule," she said with a smile.

Buffy explained that she wanted Fred to take charge of the defences of the new house. The scientific defences. Buffy wanted Fred to sort out such things as alarms, lights, maybe CCTV and anything else Fred thought would help keep the place safe. Xander was coming round later and she could talk to him as he would be helping with the actual work necessary to put things in place. Buffy wanted Fred to be the brain in charge of putting together an effective system.

"What about, um, what about money," asked Fred. "This is going to cost a lot."

"That's OK," said Buffy. "I spoke to Giles in England a couple of hours ago. He's transferring some Council money, big money, to my account. Anything we need, get it. I'll sign what's necessary. Oh, the witches will be sorting out the magical defences so you'd better talk to Willow and Tara when you've made a few plans, to make sure it all fits together OK."

"When can we move in?" asked Fred. "When's the place ours?"

"Oh, didn't I say? said Buffy, "right away. Anya's already sorted everything out. A group of us are going out there in a little while when everybody's eaten and when Xander gets here. Want to come?"


	14. Dreamtime

**Chapter Fourteen: Dreamtime**

Kennedy walked through the cemetery. Molly was a few yards to her right, Elena a similar distance to the left. Another quiet night she thought. Ever since that night at the school nobody had seen any Bringers and very few demons and vampires. The quiet before the storm she thought. She could feel things building up. She didn't need slayer nightmares or mystic prophecies to tell her the bad guys were going to come out of hiding in a big way before too long.

Molly stopped and Kennedy immediately directed her attention that way. She hissed to Elena and went over to Molly. "What's up?" she whispered as she crouched beside the already crouching potential. Elena quickly came up behind them and turned to watch the rear.

"Listen," said Molly and the three of them held themselves motionless. From somewhere up ahead they could hear chanting.

Kennedy pulled out her cellphone and pressed the quick dial. On getting a reply she whispered a message and received an acknowledgement. As she put her phone away she heard Elena hiss a warning. She turned to see Elena fire a bolt into the chest of an advancing demon.

The demon wasn't slowed down and ploughed forward towards Elena who dived out of the way. With his attention on the potential the seven foot 300 pound demon wasn't ready for the attention of a slayer. Kennedy drove her right foot into the demon's head and followed up with a savage thrust with the knife in her hand.

The demon staggered back, black blood streaming from its chest but arms flailing. Kennedy was knocked aside but as she fell the demon was hit in the head by another bolt, this time from Molly. It fell like a stone and didn't move again.

The demon had not been the sort to roar or make much sound and the fight had been over too quickly to cause much disturbance. Kennedy and Elena got to their feet and looked around for any other attackers whilst Molly and then Elena reloaded.

Must have been a loner thought Kennedy. One of those demons that gets attracted to the Hellmouth. She signalled to her companions and they moved forward cautiously towards the chanting.

As they approached they could see a group of Bringers. Only six thought Kennedy. She signalled to Molly and Elena to get down and wait. There's help on the way and no innocents to rescue so we might as well wait she thought. Besides she had to keep in mind that potentials were not slayers and her main job was to protect them. Train them and give them experience but above all protect them and don't lead them into a fight that might get them killed.

After about ten minutes she heard a long whistle from ahead and to the right. As she replied with a whistle of her own she heard another come from the left. She got to her feet and walked forward. Crossbows ready Molly and Elena followed to her right and left.

The whistles had already spooked the Bringers who had all stood up and looked around. From the left Faith charged forward followed by Rona and Annabelle. From the right came Willow, Xander and Fred.

The Bringers had no chance. They all carried knives but that did them no good. Faith and Kennedy both took out a Bringer each and the potentials took down two more with their crossbows. Xander, as so often, proved himself fearless in a fight and managed to get the better of one of the Bringers.

The remaining Bringer tried to flee but Willow used her power to toss him into a nearby gravestone. Fred stood with a small axe and looked disappointed that she'd had no chance to use it.

The slayers checked the bodies afterwards. Neither Faith nor Kennedy had been gentle. They took the killing of potentials and watchers personally. Their opponents and the ones shot by the potentials were dead, as was the one dealt with by Willow. Xander's victim was merely unconscious however having been felled by a punch to the jaw.

"Bring him back to the house," suggested Willow. "Let's see if we can get anything out of him."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They were all moved in. So many people, so little to move thought Buffy. It had only taken a couple of hours to move everybody into the new house, or Castle Buffy as Xander insisted on calling it.

Cordelia had had a fine time furnishing the new place from scratch over the past week. She had been in charge of the decor, Fred in charge of the defences and Willow in charge of the magic. Now Buffy felt a lot better. Whatever happened, at least they wouldn't be taken by surprise. Well apart from any surprises we might have tonight she thought.

Buffy went into the room where they were waiting. They were Willow, Tara, Xander, Giles, Cordelia and Faith. With the exception of Tara everybody had been in Sunnydale and involved in the events of four years before.

"Everything's set," Buffy explained. "Fred's got her stuff up and running so there shouldn't be any surprise attacks, Amy's going to look after the magic and Kennedy's in charge. We won't be disturbed so long as nothing mega goes down."

Tara took over to explain why everybody was there. She explained about her reading of Faith and why she felt that something odd had happened. Willow broke in to explain why they couldn't just leave things as they were.

"So you don't trust me," said Faith standing up, upset but trying not to let it show. "Guess I'd better leave if I'm a danger to you all."

"No," said Buffy taking hold of Faith's hand. "That might be just what the First wants. We don't think this is your fault. We just think the First or somebody is up to something."

Faith looked at Buffy and then sat down and Tara continued. "Willow and I've been thinking about this and what might be behind it."

"It might just be a distraction," said Willow. "As Buffy says it might be nothing more than a way of making us suspicious of each other. But even if it is, it means that some magic has been performed."

"It might be that you've been set up as some sort of sleeper," said Tara to Faith. "Somebody might have done something to you and then hidden it. They might be waiting for the right time to trigger you to do something for them."

"If that's what's happened we think we'll be able to reverse it but we need to know what it is," continued Willow.

"So what do you propose to do?" asked Giles.

"We want to investigate what happened four years ago," said Willow. "That's why we've asked you all here. We know that Faith worked for Mayor Wilkins and we know he had people working for him who used pretty powerful magic from time to time. We think he may have left us another surprise."

"Like that body changing gizmo you mean?" asked Faith.

"Yes," said Willow. "It would be just like the mayor to do something else in case that little surprise didn't get the job done."

"It you're looking at what happened four years ago shouldn't Dawn be here then?" asked Cordelia.

Buffy explained the truth about Dawn and how she'd not really been there four years before. Nobody had thought to tell Cordelia before this. "And I thought I'd had a few weird experiences in LA," said Cordelia. "I should have known nothing in the world is as strange as good old Sunnydale."

"So what do we do?" asked Xander. "Do we stand up one by one and tell our version of what happened, sort of like AA - I'm Xander Harris and I repair broken windows."

"I'm Faith and I'm a killer," said Faith bluntly. "I really don't...

"No," said Tara, "not like that. We intend to use magic, not memory."

"You see the problem is we can't trust our memories," said Willow. "The spell that made Dawn changed everything. We might spend our time talking about things that never happened."

"And we need to know exactly what really happened," said Tara. "What we think happened with Faith and the mayor may be very different to what really happened."

"I wish none of it had happened," muttered Faith.

"We're going to put everybody to sleep," said Willow. "Once we've done the spell we'll all have the same dream showing us what really happened."

"When we start the spell I want everybody to relax," said Tara. "Lie back and close your eyes. When Willow and I have finished the spell you'll all go back four years."

"What if we don't want to go back four years?" said Faith.

"I'm sorry Faith, I know this will be painful but we've really got to do it," said Tara.

"We won't actually be going back four years in the sense we'll really be there," explained Willow. "We'll be watchers of the events that took place then."

"The events that really took place then," said Tara. "It won't be the same as you remember now."

"No Dawn," said Cordelia.

"Not just that," said Willow "We'll see some things that we didn't know about at the time, or that some of us didn't know about at the time. If the spell works properly it'll show us everything we need to know."

"This won't affect the spell that created Dawn, will it?" asked Buffy. "Because if there's any risk we're not doing it."

"Oh no, no," said Tara. "We're not changing anything, we can't. We're just looking, just finding out what actually happened."

"We'll probably want to change some things but we won't be able to," said Willow.

"Just like a movie," said Xander. "You might not like the story but you can't change it, it's already on the disc."

"So what happens if you find out nothing?" asked Faith. "If that happens I'd better leave."

"If that happens it means something has happened more recently," said Tara. "In that case we'll work our way forward towards the present day until we find out what it is."

"Before we start this we should think for a moment about how this might affect us," said Giles. "This might stir up some bad memories, even hatred all over again. We should all make a conscious decision to resist this. After it's all over everybody should try to take time to gather their thoughts, get control of their emotions."

A few minutes silence followed before Willow spoke again. "OK, everybody ready? Let's do it."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"He'd dead," said Caridad entering the lounge. "Not surprising as we couldn't get him to eat or drink."

"Good riddance," said Rona. "The fewer Bringers the better. The way I see it it's them or us."

"Are you going to tell Buffy?" asked Annabelle.

"Later," said Kennedy. "No interruptions unless it's the end of the world."

Amy looked at her watch. "That'll give them at least another twenty minutes then," she said.

"What are they up to up there anyway?" asked Lakshmi the newly arrived potential. She had turned up at the Summers house from India two days before. Because of this the empty house had at least one occupant during the day and the night patrols regularly stopped by.

"Trying to find out what the First is up to," said Amy. "Don't worry if you hear strange noises or whatever. They're gonna be using magic."

The others nodded. Apart from Lakshmi they remembered Buffy's trip a few days before through the portal to the past to see the original watchers. They were getting used to magic being used. Unfortunately Buffy's trip had had no apparent benefit except to give her a vision of an army of uber-vampires waiting to attack, a vision that she had not shared with everybody for fear of discouraging the young potentials.

"So why aren't you up there with them?" asked Sophie. "I thought you were a witch as well."

"Somebody's got to keep an eye on all the little girls," said Amy teasingly.

Fred rushed into the room. "Kennedy, we've got a problem," she said. "There are police cars outside, four of them. Looks like they intend coming in. I bet it's that Kate looking for Faith."

"That's Gwen's friend isn't it?" asked Kennedy.

Fred nodded. "But she won't be back with her patrol for a while," she said. Gwen had taken out Dawn, Vi and Chao-An on patrol and probably wouldn't be back for several hours.

"Should we call her," asked Molly picking up a cellphone.

Kennedy shook her head. "Probably wouldn't make any difference," she said.

At that moment the doorbell rang.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy, Willow, Faith, Tara, Giles, Cordelia and Xander were now asleep. They were dreaming, all dreaming the same dream:

The place was City Hall and a police officer was escorting the vampire Mr Trick into the mayor's office. After entering, the officer pushed Trick into the centre of the room.

Mayor Wilkins looked up, smiled and offered his hand in greeting. "Hello! Nice to meet you," he said.

"Yeah, hi, it's a pleasure," replied Trick ignoring the mayor's hand. "Where am I?"

The mayor withdrew his hand. "In my office. I'm Richard Wilkins, I'm the Mayor of Sunnydale," he said. "And you're Mr Trick. Please sit down." The mayor then walked around to the other side of his desk and Trick also took a seat.

"That's an exciting suit," said the mayor.

"Well, clothes make the man," replied Trick.

"Well, as I understand it, you're not a man...exactly," said the mayor. Tricked nodded. "Mr Trick, I've been the mayor for quite some time. I like things to run smoothly. This is a very important year for me."

"Election year," said Trick.

"Something like that," replied the mayor.

"If this is the part where you tell me that I don't fit in here in your quiet little neighbourhood, you can just skip it," said Trick. " 'cause, see, that all got old long before I became a vampire. Do you know what I'm saying?"

"Do you have children?" asked the mayor. Trick just smiled. "Children are the heart of a community. They need to be looked after, controlled. The more rebellious element needs to be dealt with. The children are our future. We need them. I need them."

"If this rebellious element means who I think it does, then that problem may be taken care of this very night," said Trick.

The dream continued on to the great interest of those sharing in it. Nobody had thought they would get an insight into what the mayor had been doing but it was as Willow and Tara had said they were learning things they didn't know at the time. However nobody had yet heard anything that changed their perception of the events that had taken place. That was to change however somewhat later in the conversation:

"Like I said Mr Trick," said the mayor, "your Slayer Fest, great initiative but I hope for your sake that it doesn't work."

"Run that by me one more time?" asked a puzzled Trick.

"Killing a slayer," said the mayor shaking his head. "That means opening up a whole new can of worms. Not that there's much call for worm canning these days...Anyway the trouble with killing a slayer is there's always another one. I had a slayer killed once, took a lot of doing but I managed to get it done. Trouble was the new slayer was ten times worse than the one before. I had to skip town. I lost years because of that mistake."

"You do know you've got two slayers now," asked Trick.

"Yes, another example of how things can go wrong," said the mayor. "The Master, big powerful vampire. Sets out to kill the slayer and before you know it there are two slayers. What next, four slayers?"

"I suppose you've got a better idea," said Trick.

"You know Mr Trick you really should have listened to your mother," said the mayor. "Didn't she ever tell you the recipe for trouble: Two women in the same kitchen. What we need to do is help that along a little."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kate stood in the middle of the lounge waiting for her officers to come back from the various parts of the building they were searching. She knew she was doing the right thing but she was half hoping that they wouldn't find anything, wouldn't find Faith.

It wasn't that she didn't think Faith should be taken in. She had no sympathy for somebody who committed crimes like that. But she knew that if Faith was found there would be trouble. She could end up having to take on or even arrest all of the women in this house. Faith herself was bad news. If any of these girls, or all of these girls were anything like her that would mean big trouble.

"So why are all these girls here anyway," asked Kate. "You running some sort of finishing school?"

Kennedy smiled but said nothing. "Yeah, some sort of school," said Fred but she didn't say any more. "I'd better get back to, to..."

"That fancy security system you've got back there," said Kate. "What are you guarding, who are you guarding?"

"As I recall that's a search warrant, not an arrest warrant," said Kennedy. "We don't see why we should have a herd of police trashing our place and we're certainly not answering any questions." Fred left the room.

Two policemen entered the room. "That's everything," said the tall slim African-American. "Not upstairs, not in the attic, not on the roof."

"OK, we'd better go," said Kate and the policemen left the room. As she started to follow them she turned back and looked around the room at Kennedy and the potentials. "If anybody's hiding Faith, or helping her in any way they'll be arrested. If anybody's got anything to say, call me, Kate Lockley, at the police station. I guarantee you'll be protected."

"Protected?" said Rona. "You mean you can fight the demons and the vampires?"

"And the First?" said Molly.

"I don't think so," said Colleen.

"The First?" asked Kate.

Kennedy stood up and looked around the potentials. "We have nothing more to say," she said.

"Well, if you change your mind, any of you, you know how to find me," said Kate leaving the room. Kennedy saw her to the front door and shut it behind her. She turned as she heard Amy come down the stairs behind her. "No trouble?" she asked.

"A simple concealment spell," said Amy. "All they saw was a wall. They can't go into a room if they don't know it's there.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The dreamers had moved on. They were once again dreaming of events in the mayor's office but now they saw Trick come into the office as a trusted employee, not as a captive.

"You're sure?" asked the mayor.

"Oh yeah, Rupert Giles," said Trick. "No doubt at all he's the watcher. It's all here." Trick put a folder of papers in front of the mayor.

The mayor picked up the papers and glanced through them. "So what now," asked Trick. "You want me to kill him? Should be easy enough, no super powers to worry about."

"Now there you go again, kill, kill, kill," said the mayor. "You ever wonder why vampires have so much trouble with the slayers? It's because they only ever think of the kill and the slayers are much better at that. No, subtlety is what we need. Tell me Mr Trick what would happen if you killed the watcher?"

"One less watcher," said Trick.

"Who would be replaced by another in a few days," said the mayor. "We'd be no better off and we'd have two very cranky slayers on our hands. No, there's a better way, a much better way."

"Kidnap, torture?" suggested Trick, "It's all good with me."

The mayor ignored Tricks comments and pulled out his wallet. He took a card from inside and gave it to Trick. "Get her," he said. "She owes me a favour. Oh and don't upset her, not unless you like croaking and eating flies."

The dream continued sometime later with the mayor, once again in his office, talking to an elderly woman dressed all in black. Her face was hard to see because of the veil that she was wearing. The mayor and the witch were seated across the desk from each other with Trick standing behind the woman.

"Thank you for coming my dear," said the mayor. "I think you'll enjoy this. It should be quite easy for someone of your talents."

"Who do you want killed?" asked the witch.

"Well, you're not going to like this," said the mayor smiling, "it's...nobody. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a reason to use those particular talents before long. No what I want you to do is cast a spell on this man. His name's Rupert Giles." The mayor put a photograph of Giles on the desk in front of the table. "Here's what you need to know about him." The mayor put a folder of papers on the desk beside the photograph.

"What sort of spell?" asked the witch.

"Oh, nothing too difficult," said the mayor. "I just want him to forget about this young lady." The mayor placed a photograph of Faith next to the photograph of Giles. "Her name's Faith. You'll find more details in the folder."

"You don't need me for something that simple," said the witch.

"You're right," said the mayor, "I don't. I don't want a simple forget spell. I want it to be 'out of sight, out of mind'. I'm happy for Mr Giles to remember the young lady when he meets her or when other people mention her, I just don't want him to think about her when she's not around."

The witch agreed to the mayor's strange requirements but pointed out that such a spell would have to be renewed from time to time. The mayor wasn't concerned about renewal however. "Hopefully the damage will be done by then," he said.

"You'll need this," said Trick who produced a shoe box full of items formerly belonging to Giles and handed it to the witch.

After showing the witch out of the office Trick turned back to the mayor.

"The damage?" asked Trick. "I don't think I'm seeing the whole picture but I get that you're trying to mess things up between the new slayer and the watcher."

"Oh more than that. I'm looking to mess things up between the two slayers," said the mayor.

"I don't know if you came from a large family Mr Trick," continued the mayor, "but I did. What do you think happens when one child is the favourite, gets all she wants, gets included in everything that goes on, has money to spend and so on? But at the same time the other gets forgotten about, feels left out, is left out, has to scrape by with no support and so on. With a bit of luck and a following wind we'll soon have the two slayers at each other's throats. They'll be more concerned with each other than in causing me any trouble."

Everybody sharing the dream was stunned by this revelation. Buffy had always known that to some extent she was Giles's favourite but was astonished to see how the mayor had been able to use this to manipulate them all without their knowledge.

Faith, for the first time in this reprise began to feel a little bit better. She remembered all about being left out and unwanted, about the meetings she hadn't been invited to and had never been able to reconcile this treatment from Giles with her other image of him as a good and caring watcher. Now things were starting to make sense.

Giles himself was shaken to the core. So many of his assumptions and beliefs about himself and his performance as a watcher had been placed in question by what had just been said.


	15. Revelations

**Chapter Fifteen: Revelations**

The dream continued:

Buffy and Faith were fighting together against sword bearing vampires in an alley. Buffy knocked one down and then jumped on him and they began to struggle. Faith was fiddling with her bow but was unable to use it before another vampire arrived.

"Screw it!" muttered Faith throwing the bow at the newly arrived vampire. Faith closed with the vampire and after a few blows succeeded in dusting it with the arrow which was still in her hand. At about the same time Buffy succeeded in dusting her opponent.

"I think we've got more comin'!" said Faith as they started to move quickly in the direction of a warehouse.

"We're never gonna make it to the warehouse," replied Buffy.

"If they keep coming one at a time, we got a shot," said Faith.

Suddenly another sword carrying vampire landed in front of them and thrust his sword at Faith. She reacted instantly, catching his arm and shoving him into a crate, then pulling him off and swinging him backward onto a pile of wood. Buffy stepped right in and staked him causing him to crumble to dust. Buffy and Faith continued on their way.

At the end of the building an arm reached out and grabbed Buffy by the shoulder. Instantly she grabbed the man and threw him against a dumpster. Faith jumped right in to stake him. He slumped down to the ground, hurt by the impact against the heavy steel container.

Buffy suddenly had a horrible realisation. "FAITH, NO!" she called but it was too late. Faith was already swinging her stake and plunged it into the man's heart and then pulled it out. The stake was now covered in blood.

The man grabbed his chest in pain, blood pouring from it. Faith backed away as Buffy quickly got down beside him to try to help him. The man pulled his hands away and looked down at them covered in his own blood, shaking hard as he went into shock. "Don't move!" Buffy ordered him.

Faith was obviously totally shocked. "I didn't... I didn't know. I didn't know."

"We need to call 911, NOW!" said Buffy urgently concentrating on the injured man in front of her but Faith was paralyzed with shock. The man began to shake and the blood continued to flow.

"Don't move, i-it's okay..." said Buffy to the man, trying to reassure him. Buffy tried to apply pressure to the wound but the blood continued to escape. "I-I need, I need something to stop the..."

The man began to convulse and blood began to trickle from his mouth. He tried to say something but was unable to do so. With a final gesture he raised his arm before his body relaxed completely in death. He lay there with his eyes open staring into space.

Both girls stood in silence, stunned by what had happened. Suddenly Faith began to react. "We gotta go!" she cried grabbing onto Buffy's arm and pulling her to her feet. Together they ran from the scene.

As the two slayers ran down the alley Buffy stopped to look back. Faith grabbed her arm to get her to continue on. "Come on!" she called but Buffy did not respond. Faith jumped over a wall but Buffy did not follow. She continued on to the end of the alley and went over a fence.

Faith ran along the street but stopped when she realised that Buffy was not following. "B?" she called but got no reply. She turned back and made her way back towards the wall. She jumped over it again and looked around for Buffy. "B?" she called again but again got no reply. She looked down the alley at the body and walked towards it.

Faith slowly stepped up to the body. Police sirens sounded nearby but then continued on their way. Faith knelt down beside the body and reached out for the wound. She touched it and immediately yanked her hand back. She looked at the dead man, her expression full of guilt and horror.

I never knew how really shocked she was thought the sleeping Buffy. I was too shocked myself to take much notice I suppose. I never should have left her.

Willow, Cordelia, Xander and Giles were surprised. They only remembered the tough girl image that Faith had always put on. It had never occurred to them how truly shaken by the whole experience Faith had been.

I thought this was meant to be different to what I remembered thought the sleeping Faith.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gwen, Dawn, Vi and Chao-An approached the old Summers home. Vi was limping from her fall over a tombstone during the fight they had just had with three vampires. Thankfully this was their only injury and it didn't seem to be serious. The three vampires were now dust.

Dawn was wondering about what was going on back at the new house. Willow and Tara had briefed her on what they were going to try to do. Dawn had suggested to the witches that they might be doing exactly what The First wanted by reopening old wounds. So far Faith's return had gone much more smoothly than anybody would have thought possible but a rerun of what had happened four years before would suit nobody but The First.

Dawn's thoughts were disturbed by a warning from Vi. "There's somebody waiting outside the house," she said. "It looks like a woman."

"Another potential?" asked Gwen. "They keep coming don't they?"

However it very much wasn't a potential, as Dawn soon recognised. She'd never met Drusilla, not even in her false 'magical' memories but she had studied up on her after Harmony had told them she was back in town. "Watch out!" she called. "It's Drusilla." Realising the others, especially Chao-An would not realise how serious this was she added: "Vampire, very strong, very dangerous."

Gwen immediately took the lead and shot an electrical blast at Drusilla. It missed, mainly because Drusilla moved very fast indeed to get out of the way. The blast blistered the front door of the Summers house however. "Oh great," said Dawn seeing the damage. "I bet I know who Buffy's gonna blame for that."

Drusilla was no longer in sight but her voice came out of the darkness. "Naughty, naughty. If you're bad you won't get your present." With that she walked forward pushing a terrified young girl in front of her, being careful to keep herself shielded by the girl.

Dawn made to go forward with her stake but Drusilla held her long nailed hand to the girl's throat and Dawn stopped. "Vampire!" called Chao-An pointing behind them. Understandably it was one of the first words she had learned on coming to Sunnydale. Slowly walking up behind them, but not attacking, at least for the moment, was another woman, a beautiful blond woman.

At first Gwen wondered whether Chao-An was using the word vampire just to raise the alarm about somebody else nearby. A glance at the second woman however lead her to the conclusion that Chao-An was probably right. The blond was calm and confident. Ordinary she was not.

Gwen and her group moved to the left and backed away so as to keep both Drusilla and the new woman in their sight without the need to look in opposite directions. "You're Darla aren't you?" Dawn asked of the new arrival remembering what Cordy had said about Drusilla and Darla's activities in LA.

"Connor's mother?" asked Gwen.

"And how is my little boy?" asked Darla, confirming her identity. "Has he killed his father yet?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sleepers continued their slumber, watching and learning:

A TV was playing. "We now go live to our field reporter, who is standing by at the waterfront with this breaking news about the murder that has shocked the Mayor and residents of Sunnydale." The TV showed a boat recovering the body of the dead man.

The TV reporter took up the commentary: "Fishermen discovered the body today, the victim of a brutal stabbing. Authorities and citizens alike were shocked when the slain man was identified as Deputy Mayor Allan Finch."

The TV news cut to the Mayor at a press conference. "Mr. Finch was not only my long-time aide and associate, he was a close personal friend. I promise you I will not rest until whoever did this is found and brought to justice. Thank you very much."

The dream now moved to the mayor's office in City Hall where the mayor was talking to Mr Trick.

"I just don't understand why Allan would leave such a paper trail about our dealings," said the mayor. "Do you think he was gonna betray me? Oh, now, that's a horrible thought. And now he's dead, I'll never have the chance to scold him."

"Maybe this will change your mood," said Trick dropping a report onto the mayor's desk.

"What is it?" asked the mayor.

"Bombshell," answered Trick. "The Deputy Mayor had wooden splinters in his wound. Struck right through the heart with a sharp, pointed object. Now, word is, someone was fighting vampires not a block away from the scene. Any smart money says it was a Slayer who did this job."

"Why? Do you think he talked? To them?" asked the mayor.

"If he did, I'm thinking he said the wrong thing," said Trick.

"Well, this is exciting," said the mayor happily. "A Slayer up for Murder One. That's sunshine and roses to me. It really is." He laughed as he tapped the end of the report on his desk and set it down.

Later in the mayor's office: Mr Trick was no longer there. Instead the mayor was talking again with the elderly witch dressed in black who was sat on the other side of his desk.

"I thought so," said the mayor. "So can you do it tonight?"

The woman nodded. "The sooner the better, whilst the guilt is at its height. It's only the guilt that creates the opening for this sort of spell. Do you want me to involve Mr Trick in this?"

"This isn't something Mr Trick needs to know about," replied the mayor. "He's having a lot of fun doing what he's doing. I don't want to spoil it for him. I'll tell him what he needs to know. You give me a call when it's been done."

The mayor stood up and walked around his desk. "So how exactly is this gonna go? Is one of them gonna run amok?" he asked. "I'm kinda hoping the slayers will spend all their time trying to kill each other."

"The spell will only affect the one with the most guilt, almost certainly the one who actually killed your man. She's got a soul so there's bound to be guilt, especially if she's never killed a human being before."

"Gosh yes," said the mayor cheerfully. "I remember the first time I killed somebody, I was right off my food for, well days afterwards. Of course I don't have that problem any more."

"If it goes the way it should it'll build up into a major loss of emotional control," continued the witch. "She could strike out at anybody," said the woman. "For an ordinary human being that might include suicide, for a slayer..." she shrugged.

"And how long will it last?" asked the mayor. "After all this is a slayer we're talking about."

"That's where this comes in," replied the woman holding out a small box and putting it on the mayor's desk. He went to open it but stopped short when the witch put her hand over the box. "Don't open it yet. Wait until after I've done the spell. When you open it, it'll call her. When she reaches bottom emotionally she'll come to you."

"And?" asked the mayor.

"That's up to you," replied the woman. "You can be her best friend or you can set up an ambush to kill her."

"Her best friend..." mused the mayor.

The sleeping Faith was as startled by these revelations as the others. For the first time she felt hatred, intense hatred of the dead mayor. All that pretence! Sure, she'd known he was evil but she'd always felt that his concern for her had been genuine. It was a shock to see how cold blooded the mayor had been in setting everything up. All of Faith's conflicting thoughts about the mayor were swept away as her emotions now aligned with what she already knew about the soulless monster that he had really been.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What sort of deal?" asked Kennedy suspiciously.

"They didn't say," replied Gwen. "They just said they wanted to see the slayer."

"They meant they wanted to see Buffy," explained Dawn. "I don't think they know there's three slayers," she added hastily when she saw how this annoyed Kennedy. "And we didn't tell them," she added.

"We could have taken them," said Vi. "Just two vampires. We've handled more than that before now." Chao-An could only follow what was being said in general terms but she nodded. With Gwen helping them they could have taken the two vampires.

Gwen shrugged. "Maybe," she conceded. "But we'd probably have lost Isabella." After talking Darla and Drusilla had quickly disappeared into the darkness leaving the Argentinean potential unharmed behind them. "As a peace offering," said Darla as her final parting words.

"Are they still at it?" asked Dawn inclining her head to indicate upstairs.

"Uh huh," said Kennedy. "Not a peep out of them yet."

"They could be there for hours yet," explained Amy. "Willow and Tara were getting ready for some serious magic."

Dawn couldn't help but worry whenever Willow did magic these days but she was happy that Tara was involved and she hoped that meant it was safe and would turn out OK.

Kennedy explained about the police visit and now it was Gwen's turn to be annoyed. She expressed her intention to pay her friend the police lieutenant a return visit sometime soon.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sleepers thought they had the answers they were looking for and were surprised when the dream continued:

Again they were in the mayor's office. Faith was sat at the desk with her eyes closed. A present was lying on the desk in front of her. The mayor was standing by her side. "Alright, you can open them up now," he said.

Faith opened her eyes and saw the present. She smiled at the mayor. "Fab, what's the occasion?" she asked.

"Faith, as if I need a reason to show you my affection, or appreciation for running a small errand at the airport," he replied.

The sleeping Faith mentally grimaced at this. How could I be so stupid she thought. I should have given him that 'present' straight back, point first.

"Airport? What's next. Gonna want me to help a buddy of yours move a sofa?" the dream Faith asked.

"This isn't a free ride young lady," said the mayor. "You know, I'm beginning to think somebody's getting a little spoiled. Maybe I should take this back."

Faith immediately clutched the present. "Sorry...sir," she said.

"That's my girl," said the mayor, chuckling. "Another cookie?" he asked holding them out to Faith who took one. "Now, a package is arriving tomorrow night from Central America. Something, and I can't stress this enough, something crucially important to my Ascension. Without it...Well! What would Toll House cookies be without the chocolate chips? A pretty darn big disappointment, I can tell you."

The mayor giggled and looked at Faith. "Open your present." Faith unwrapped the present to reveal a knife with an intricate design. "There, that look on your face is my reward."

"This is a thing of beauty, boss." said Faith looking at it carefully and lovingly.

"Well," said the mayor. "It cost a pretty penny, so you just take good care of it. And you be careful not to put somebody's eye out with that thing, until I tell you to."

"Any particular eyes in mind?" asked Faith.

Both Buffy and Faith remembered the knife. They remembered it very well as they had both used it. Willow remembered it as well from when Faith had held it to her throat when she had been held hostage by Faith and the mayor. Now however she could see what she had been unable to see four years before.

Willow's witch-sight now told her the knife's true nature. Of all the things that Faith had done it was the way Faith had treated her when she was a hostage that Willow had found impossible to forgive. Now she could see that it was not simply Faith who had controlled the knife but to an extent the knife that had controlled Faith.

Tara was thinking about the knife as well. She knew why they had been shown the knife. It was an evil weapon, enchanted with dark magic, with hidden black runes engraved upon it. Nobody could have possession of such a knife for very long without using it.

Everybody awoke all at once and slowly sat up, stretched and looked around. There was a lot of looking at each other wondering who would be the first to speak. It was Tara. Everybody realised how Faith had been the victim of the spell carried out by the mayor's dark witch. Tara now explained about the true nature of the knife that the mayor had given to Faith.

"I, I didn't know," said Faith. "I didn't know he did that to me. If he wasn't dead already I'd kill him."

Buffy looked at Faith. "It always seemed strange to me how you went from being my friend to betraying us all," she said. "It wasn't your fault."

"I should have realised," said Willow. "I'm sorry Faith..."

"You couldn't have known" said Tara. There's no way you could have detected a spell like that with what you knew of witchcraft then."

"She's right," said Giles. "But it's a possibility I should have thought of, especially after the mayor tried to use magic against Angel. It's quite extraordinary for a slayer to go bad, particularly as it happened so suddenly."

"But why didn't he keep on using magic?" asked Cordelia. "It worked so well against Faith. Why leave us to continue to fight against him?"

"He couldn't use another spell like that," said Tara. "Like that witch said it was Faith's guilt about killing the deputy mayor that gave him his opportunity."

"I think the mayor was running out of favours he could call in after he failed against Angel," said Faith.

"Does this mean you were under that spell when you tried to kill me?" asked Xander.

"She must have been," said Buffy quickly. "That was a couple of nights later. The spell was done the same day as the body was discovered. If you remember, Faith and I didn't tell you and Giles anything about how the deputy mayor died until later."

"Yes," said Giles. "The spell would have been near its peak by then."

"So does that tell you what you were trying to find out?" Cordelia asked Tara.

"I think so," said Tara. "There's nothing wrong with Faith's energy, her aura, now. She's back to her natural state. She's not guilty for what she did."

"What about the deputy mayor?" asked Willow.

"Having seen exactly what happened I can fairly say that no crime was committed there," said Giles. "That was accidental death. Faith never intended any harm to a human being."

"But I killed that professor later, and I did a few other nasty things that you probably don't know about," said Faith.

"Under the influence of the mayor and the knife," said Buffy. "Oh god." she added as a realisation hit her.

"Don't you still have that knife Buff?" asked Xander.

"I had it when I tried to kill Faith," said Buffy.

"And now we know why," said Willow to reassure Buffy. Buffy said nothing but was not reassured. She remembered her determination to take Faith's body to Angel even before she retrieved the knife.

"So where is the knife now?" asked Tara.

"I buried it in my garden after we blew up the mayor," said Buffy. "I didn't feel I could just throw it away."

"I'll orb you there when we're done here," said Tara. "If you could give it to me I'll take it to where it never does any harm again."

"So when did the spell wear off," asked Cordelia who had a few bitter memories of her own. "I'm wondering about what Faith did in LA after she woke up." Everybody looked at Tara, including an anxious Faith. Buffy of course was thinking about what had happened in Sunnydale after Faith woke up.

"The Mayor's influence over Faith would have ended when the mayor died," said Tara. "But as I understand it Faith was stabbed with that evil knife. It would have taken a long time to recover from that. The affects would have continued for some time after she woke up."

"Of course," said Giles. "That explains it." Everybody turned to him. "It's just that Faith's coma was so unusual. A slayer should be able to recover in a few days from anything that doesn't kill her. Faith was out for months. Her body was fighting the affects of the evil in that blade."

"I'm sorry Faith," said Buffy to Faith feeling guilty.

"Hey," said Faith, "not your fault. We're all victims here. We survived, we're all OK." Except that poor professor she thought remembering exactly how she'd killed him.

"Except the police still want you," said Cordelia. "And you've got a criminal record."

"I think I might be able to do something about that," said Willow.

"You mean computer hacking Will?" asked Xander.

"I was thinking magic," said Willow.

"That could be very dangerous," said Giles with disapproval, looking to Tara for support. "And it would take a lot of power."

"It's OK," said Willow. "I know some sisters with a lot of power. Way more power than a bunch of old monks anyway."


	16. Visitors from Hell

**Chapter Sixteen: Visitors from Hell**

It had all begun to sink in for Faith. It was over, it wasn't her fault. She wasn't a cold blooded killer. She didn't have to spend the rest of her life atoning for what she had done and hiding from the police.

The trouble was she didn't believe it. She had killed the professor. She remembered doing it and she remembered much else besides. Faith remembered the resentment she had felt against Buffy, a resentment that still jumped out from time to time if she didn't keep control of it.

Faith still felt she had been in control of what she had been doing. Could magic really make all that much difference? Was it a case of pushing on an open door? Would things have been all that different even without the magic? The trouble was she didn't know and nobody would ever know. All she knew was she'd have no excuse for anything that happened from now on.

One of the main things Faith had discovered in prison was that she liked being the slayer. She'd had a lot of bad dreams and bad memories in prison with so much time on her hands. The best times had been remembering when she'd made a difference, remembering that there were people alive, alive and still living their lives, because of her.

When the bad memories had begun to get on top of her she had deliberately tried to remember the faces of people she had saved. She had found this very difficult. The face that she would never forget was the face of the dead professor.

Since leaving prison she had a few more faces, a few more good memories and a few more friends to think about. She realised that all she could do was to continue doing what she was doing, continue be a slayer...no The Slayer, The Chosen One, continuing doing what she was born to do.

The members of the old gang now had guilt of their own. Buffy and Giles in particular felt that they had in some way let Faith down. Faith noticed this and had a word with Willow and Tara about it before they went off to San Francisco to see the Halliwells about doing a clean up spell.

Neither Faith, nor Willow and Tara thought it a good idea that everything be wiped from everybody's memories. Although they wanted everybody inside the gang to remember what had happened they did want the criminal events to be stricken from the record and they did want the police to forget about looking for Faith.

"But you've got to make sure nobody thinks what happened was their fault," explained Faith. "Buffy and Giles and the others aren't to blame for what happened. You've got to take care of that."

"Magic's not like that Faith," said Tara. "The more complicated it is the easier it is to go wrong. A simple but strong forget spell aimed at the forces of law and order is all we can really expect."

"But the monks' spell that made Dawn. That must have been pretty complicated," suggested Faith.

"Yes, in was, in a way. But it didn't contain a lot of exceptions. It applied to everybody, everybody in the world, exactly the same," said Tara.

"Except the monks themselves," added Willow, "and probably only the monks who did the spell."

"Creating a false history for everybody is complicated enough," said Willow. "Making different histories for different people is way more than just complicated."

"As it is we may have to settle for everybody, including us being made to forget if the Halliwells think it too complicated or too risky to let some of us remember," said Tara.

"We all have guilt about something," said Willow remembering her own history. "It's what helps us avoid making the same mistakes again."

After making arrangements to meet the Halliwell sisters Willow and Tara orbed off to San Francisco. Meanwhile Giles received a message about a potential in Australia and Cordelia found time to telephone Angel and Wesley to put them in the picture about what had happened and what was now planned.

Cordelia was glad to hear that a lot had improved in LA following the darkness. Currently Angel and the gang were trying to hunt down something that was causing groups of people to disappear.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy, Xander, Cordelia, Kennedy and Anya arrived at the rendezvous well before the time set. It was the usual deserted warehouse. On arrival they proceeded to search the building and the surrounding area, that is Anya teleported around outside and the others searched inside.

"So why didn't you want Faith, Gwen and Amy to come?" asked Kennedy. "If the vampires have something planned we might need them."

"I've been caught that way before," said Buffy. "Invite me to a meeting and then attack while I'm away. That's how Drusilla killed Kendra, the slayer before Faith. I had to leave a strong team at the house. Fred can handle the equipment, Amy can do the magic, Faith and Gwen can lead the potentials if there's any fighting.

"They nearly killed me Willow and Cordy the last time," said Xander. "Angel captured Giles and tortured him for hours."

"Angelus, not Angel, Angelus!" said Buffy glaring at Xander. Just like him not to miss a chance to bring that up again she thought.

"So why are we here meeting Nutty and Bimbo," asked Cordelia who had bad memories of both vampires. "You know they both hate you. It's gotta be a trap."

"We've got enough firepower to deal with two vampires," said Kennedy, "even if they bring along their friends."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Glory walking out of the darkness towards them.

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"Why does Angel think we'll find anything here anyway?" asked Connor, giving his usual accurate impression of a whiny teenager. He had received a call telling him to come to the alley outside Lorne's old club. Currently he was waiting, hidden in darkness at one end of the alley with Gunn.

"Information received," said Gunn. "Some mage told him something's going down here, something about those people who've disappeared. Whatever it is we should find out more about it tonight."

This time for a change Connor kept to himself his low opinion of anything connected to magic and simply grunted. For this Gunn was grateful. Not for the first time Gunn thought that somebody who had vampires for parents and grew up in a demon dimension should have more belief in or at least respect for magic.

At the other end of the ally Wesley waited with Lorne. He was fretting about what Cordelia had revealed about Faith. I should have known he thought, or at least suspected. With the benefit of hindsight he kept going over all the things he now thought were clues that everything then was not as it seemed. We knew the mayor used magic he thought, we...I should have called in the coven that works with the Council. Willow was only a learner then. I shouldn't have just left the magic to her and Giles.

A movement in front of him attracted his attention. Angel had moved out of the shadows towards him. "Stop beating yourself up Wes," said Angel quietly. "It wasn't your fault. I was there and so was Giles. We didn't know what was really going on either and we had way more experience that you. It was your first assignment. Your first time in the field."

"But you weren't in charge," muttered Wesley mainly to himself.

"Heads up kiddies," said Lorne. "We have a live one. Well we have one, alive or not." As the other two looked up they saw that somebody had emerged from the ruined club into the alley.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you want?" asked Buffy although she thought she already had a good idea of what the newly revived Hellgod actually wanted.

"You know what I want," said Glory. "It's what I've always wanted...Euww!" Glory had been hit by a stone. The stone had been lightly tossed by Xander but had left a small blemish on her red dress which she quickly rubbed down.

"At least she's not the First," said Xander attracting Glory's attention to him.

"If you think I'll let you ruin my dress..." Glory began and then she moved towards Xander impossibly fast and with every intention of causing him some serious, if not fatal, damage. Nobody human could move fast enough to stop her. However just as Glory was about to put her hands on Xander's throat she was knocked aside by Anya and propelled clear across the room onto her back.

Glory picked herself up furious and ready for payback but pulled herself up short as she saw that the slayer and her friends were ready for a serious fight. Belatedly she recalled that she was not there for a fight. "Hey, calm down," she said. "I'm here to talk, not to fight."

"I heard about you," said Cordelia. "I heard you were not too smart. Anybody who'd start a fight over that dress..." she continued shaking her head.

"You just see how smart you'd be if somebody else was using half your brain," protested Glory. "Anyway if you won't listen..."

"So talk," said Buffy aggressively. "If you just want to talk we'll listen, but if you want a fight we're ready for that. As I recall you didn't do too well the last time we met." As Buffy confronted the Hellgod Kennedy hung back, her eyes searching around them to ensure that they were not taken by surprise by a sneak attack from another quarter.

"I'm here to give you a choice," said Glory. "A choice whether to help me or to suffer the consequences because hey, we both want the same thing."

"That'll be a first," said Buffy sceptically.

"As I recall you wanted me gone and I wanted to go," said Glory. "I think that's exactly where we are now."

"You're not having Dawn," said Buffy who received a strange look from Kennedy who did not understand what Dawn has to do with this. "You're not even going to see Dawn." Suddenly Buffy had a very bad thought and stepped back pulling out her cellphone.

As Buffy punched the number of the new house Glory realised what Buffy was doing. "She's all right. I'm not after Dawn. That was a once only deal. That won't work for me again, well not for hundreds and hundreds of years anyway."

"Hi," said Buffy into her phone. "Is Dawn there...Good, keep her safe. Be ready for an attack, any sort of attack...Just tell her Glory's back... She'll explain...Yeah, we're all fine. We'll be back soon...bye."

"Why don't you just go then?" Anya asked Glory. "You're not having Dawn and you're not hurting Xander. If you stick around it's you who'll be hurting."

"That's just it I can't go," said Glory. "I can't go where I want to go and that's home. That's where you come in. You help me to go home and we're all happy. If I have to stay here I'll turn this world into a copy of my own Hell World. I don't want to do that, it'll be like, hard work but make no mistake sweetie, that's exactly what I'll do if I have to."

"How do you expect us to find a way to send you home," asked Xander. "What do you think we are, the Masters of the Universe?"

"I hear some of the Slayer's friends know something about moving between worlds," said Glory. "I'm sure you can come up with something, now you have a good reason to try really hard."

"And in the meantime you go back to sucking out brains, no thank you," said Buffy.

"You're out of date Slayer," said Glory. "Now I'm no longer sharing with Benji I don't have to do that any more. Although I could go back to it for old time's sake if you don't play ball."

"So you got rid of Ben," said Buffy.

"It wasn't me who got rid of Ben," replied Glory. "Anyway don't spare any tears for old Ben. He wasn't the nice guy you thought he was. He was the one who called in the Queller demon. In the end Ben was just like me. The most important person for Ben was Ben."

Kennedy stepped forward aggressively. "We can take her," she said. "Between us we're plenty strong enough. We don't need to do any deals."

Glory laughed. "Ooh, you do like having feisty little ones around you don't you Slayer," said Glory. "Does she know you died last time as well as me?"

"We'll think about this," said Buffy. "We'll meet again, same time, same place, next week to let you have our reply. But if we hear about a sudden outbreak of madness in the population all bets are off. We'll hunt you down."

Glory turned away but then turned back. "Just to make you think twice before you threaten me again..." Glory suddenly threw something hard and fast at the surprised Anya. Anya screamed and fell to the ground. Glory left the building before anybody could move.

Xander caught Anya as she fell. She had a long knife in her abdomen and seemed to be struggling for breath. Blood poured out of her. Xander let Anya down onto the ground and tried to stem the flow of blood. "We've got to stop the bleeding, oh god!" Buffy pulled off her shirt and knelt down trying to do just that. Kennedy decided she would be best employed staying back and keeping guard in case of another attack.

Cordelia stood quietly thinking. Suddenly she called. "Tara! Tara we need you." Abruptly Tara orbed in and stood beside Cordelia. Wordlessly Cordelia pointed at Anya and Tara knelt down beside her.

For a few seconds Tara tried to heal Anya but nothing happened. "Something's blocking me," she said.

"She's a demon. Does that make a difference?" asked Buffy.

"It's not that, it's something else," replied Tara.

"Her amulets!" said Xander. "We need to get them off her."

Buffy opened up Anya's clothes and tore off the amulets that Anya was wearing, immediately dropping them to the ground nearby. She stood up to give Tara more room and stood back, at the same time keeping an eye on the amulets.

Tara took the knife in one hand and pulled it out of Anya, at the same time applying her healing power with her other hand. As Tara tossed the knife away Anya gasped with the shock but the healing cushioned her and continued to work. At last Anya was herself again. Tara and Xander gently helped her to her feet.

Buffy picked up her bloodied shirt and ruefully examined it before tossing it aside. Xander took off his jacket and offered it to her. She put it on.

"I thought your amulets protected you from that sort of thing," Xander asked Anya remembering how they had been unable to hurt Halfrek.

Kennedy knelt down to examine the bloody knife. "Don't touch it!" ordered Tara. "It's enchanted."

"Does that answer your question?" said Anya.

Tara picked up the knife with Buffy's now useless shirt. "I'll get rid of this," she said. "This is becoming a habit."

Buffy and the rest explained to Tara what had happened and about their meeting with Glory. Tara explained that she and Willow were working out the details of the forget spell with the Halliwell sisters and would probably be away for a few days.

Anya knelt down to pick up her amulets. "You can't put them back on you know," said Cordelia. "Not anymore."

"Why?" asked Anya. "They're what keeps me safe, what let me stop Glory from killing Xander."

"They nearly got you killed," said Xander.

"Cordy's right Anya," said Tara. "You've resisted those amulets so far but if you wear them much longer you'll be fighting on the other side."

Anya stood up. She knew Cordelia and Tara were right but she hated it. Without the amulets she would be powerless, she'd be unable to defend herself and she'd be unable to help anybody else.

Tara walked over to Anya and took her hand. "I can help you know," she said. "It's my job to help. You have your own witch power. I can help you to develop your power as a white witch."

Anya turned away. "Take them away," she said. "Take them away now before I change my mind."

Tara quietly picked up the amulets and added them to her bundle, all except one. She walked back to Anya. "You can keep this one," she said smiling. "This one was made by Willow. It'll still give you some protection." As Anya put Willow's amulet around her neck Tara orbed away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gunn and Connor watched as the figure walked away from them towards the group at the other end of the alley. Connor made to move forward but Gunn put a hand on his shoulder. "Our job's still here," he said. "It's only one person, Angel and the others can handle whoever it is. We need to keep watching."

At the other end of the alley Angel, Wesley and Lorne watched the figure approach. It soon became obvious that it was a woman. And what a woman! The woman was the most beautiful they had ever seen, a literal goddess. As she approached the three of them they fell to their knees. "Hello," the woman said. "My name's Jasmine, would you like to work for me?"

"What the hell!" said Gunn watching from the other end of the alley and starting forward.

"No!" said Connor this being his turn to return the favour in restraining his partner. "We've got to get out of here now!" With that he grabbed Gunn and pulled him away from the alley.

"I've seen demons like this before," he said. "They're very strong, very dangerous. Just getting near them lets them take you over body and soul."

"What about Angel, Wesley..." protested Gunn.

"They're working for the demon now. Run!" answered Connor.

At the other end of the alley Jasmine turned and saw Gunn and Connor leave. She smiled and turned to Angel."Your first job for me will be to bring those two back here to meet me," she said.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy called a meeting the next day to discuss what Glory had said. Giles had left for Australia and Willow and Tara were still in San Francisco. As everybody else gathered Cordelia's phone rang. It was Gunn. He explained that Angel, Wesley and Lorne were now working for a very powerful demon known as Jasmine who appeared to be taking over the loyalty of just about anybody who came close to her. Of Angel's gang only Gunn and Connor were still unaffected because they'd managed to avoid getting too close to Jasmine. Cordelia determined she had to go to LA to help.

In the discussion that followed Fred also expressed a wish to go back to LA but in view of her knowledge and experience of travelling to other worlds she was persuaded to stay in Sunnydale and work on finding a way to send Glory home.

It was determined that Faith, Gwen and Amy would go back to LA with Cordelia. The plan was to see if Amy and Cordelia could use magic to protect everybody from the power of this demon and hopefully destroy her.

"So how many times do we have to rescue Angel?" asked Xander.

"As often as we need to," replied Buffy firmly. "He's always been there for us when we needed him."

Xander looked around and found that Buffy, Cordelia, Fred and Faith were all glaring at him.

"Hey Xander," said Gwen. "No hassle. We're used to rescuing you guys. It's what we do."

The discussion continued about what to do about Glory. Anya and Dawn were in favour of killing her as quickly as possible but they both agreed that it would be very difficult. There was no real dissent to Buffy's view that they should see if they could send Glory back to where she came from.

"Does anybody know where she came from?" asked Fred. "I know how to go back to Pylea and I might be able to open a portal to Quortoth but otherwise what I know only leads to random places."

"Quortoth might be a good place to send her," said Cordelia.

"We'll keep that in reserve," said Buffy. "We don't want to send her to the wrong place and then have her plotting to come back again. We want to get her to a place where she's gonna stay."

"Why don't we ask her where she came from?" asked Dawn. "If she really wants to go back she should tell us everything she knows about the place."

"It's not like we agreed to find an exit for her immediately," said Kennedy. "It'll give us time to get Willow, Tara and Giles back. They probably know a lot about other worlds."

"There's something else we need to think about," said Faith. "You remember that guy Caleb we met on the way into town?"

"Yeah," said Kennedy. "That preacher guy on the road who hurt Shannon before we dealt with him."

"Well Shannon reminded me earlier that he said he had something belonging to the slayer," continued Faith.

"Didn't Tara say he was connected to the First Evil?" asked Gwen.

"Yeah, she did," said Faith. "I forgot all about what Shannon told us in the rush to get here. I suppose this guy might have had it in his car. We had a quick look inside but didn't search it."

"Or he might have had it wherever he was going," said Kennedy. "I bet he was going to join up with the Bringers. Shannon said they were his boys."

"So we need to find the headquarters of these Bringers and search it," said Buffy. "OK everybody be on the lookout for any sort of Bringer HQ. If you spot any Bringers see if you can follow them back to their base, if you can do it without taking too many chances."

"I'll ask Kate if the police found that guy's car when I get back," said Gwen.

"Did that Bringer we caught say anything before he died?" asked Xander.

"No eyes, no tongue," said Amy which provoked a chorus of disgust "but he had a few interesting things in his pockets from before he was a Bringer. He used to be a man called Silvio Cannesta and he was a farm worker."

"People like that move around a lot," said Xander. "But it might mean the Bringer HQ is somewhere out of town."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jasmine came out of her bedroom in the Hyperion Hotel well fed and very satisfied. Such nice people. She went downstairs where Wesley was waiting for her.

"The TV people will be here tomorrow," he said. "You'll be going out live."

"Good," said Jasmine. "Once I've made my broadcast the main networks should pick it up as a news item. That'll take everything past the point of no return."

"On the other hand you can put that off for the time being," said a woman's voice from behind them. Darla entered the foyer from the back of the hotel. As it was broad daylight outside she had presumably entered the building from the sewers.

"Hello Darla," said Wesley smiling. "I'm sure you're happy to meet Jasmine."

Jasmine smiled and walked towards Darla, her hands outstretched. Suddenly she was propelled backwards by an unseen force across to the other side of the foyer. Drusilla appeared from behind Darla holding a short stick with a bright red jewel secured to the end.

"Ooh goody," said Drusilla, "it worked."

Wesley rushed forward towards the two vampires angry that anybody should attack Jasmine. In his present state he had no interest in his own safety and was easy meat for Darla who dodged his lunge and knocked him unconscious.

Jasmine stood herself up glowering and started forward again. "If you think that pitiful magic will protect you..."

Darla held up her hand. "We know that won't stop you for long. We just want to stop you long enough for you to listen to us. We've got a message for you."

Jasmine stopped. "A message, why should I be interested in any message?" she asked.

"As you can see your devastating attraction is having no effect on us," said Darla. "In fact we can see what you really look like. Do you want to know how?"

"She doesn't want to share, oh no," said Drusilla. "She wants the whole cake. Naughty girl."

"You're not the only power in this world," said Darla. "We work for another, somebody who is visiting for a while."

"You work for Glory," said Jasmine. "I know she's back."

"That's right, Glory," said Darla. "But Glory's not your enemy. She just wants you to stop what you're doing for a while. She'll be leaving this world soon. She wants you to stay here quietly for a few weeks until she's left because what you're doing will mess up her plans. After she's left you can do what you like."

"I can already do just what I like," said Jasmine laughing. "Why should I do what she likes? What does she offer me?"

"Her friendship if you do as she asks," said Darla. "You really don't want her for an enemy."

Jasmine shook her head and started forward. "I have my own timetable...

Suddenly there was a loud bang and a bright flash. The room was temporarily plunged into darkness. As daylight returned Jasmine found herself alone in the foyer with the unconscious Wesley. Drusilla had been ready for another attack from Jasmine and had used another spell to cover the escape of the two vampires.


	17. Down Under

**Chapter Seventeen: Down Under**

Gunn pulled his car to a halt and looked at his watch. It was becoming more and more difficult to stay clear of Jasmine's people. Gunn therefore kept on the move as much as possible and trusted nobody, well nobody but Connor.

Jasmine seemed to have some of the cops working for her now. That was why Gunn had changed cars twice in recent days, just in case his car was on any sort of wanted list. He had learnt to look closely at the faces of anybody he met, searching for signs that the person had that diagnostic artificial 'happiness' which seemed to be part of what happened to people when Jasmine took control of them.

Staying away from Angel was the biggest problem. From what Gunn and Connor could tell Angel had been detailed by Jasmine to capture them and seemed to be spending his time on nothing else. He knew all about Gunn and Connor, including the names of their friends and many of their other contacts and he could track them by smell.

Whenever Gunn stopped the car he tried to make sure it was in full sunshine but he knew that once darkness fell Angel wouldn't be far behind. He hoped their plan worked.

Gunn was getting fed up going up against Angel so much lately. It made him realise how truly formidable Angel was. It was easy to write Angel off as the broody guy who didn't get out much but there was nobody in this city, well nobody who was anybody, who didn't take Angel seriously.

Gunn's phone rang twice and then stopped. Thirty seconds later it did the same thing again. Gunn didn't pick it up but he got the message. Everything was in place. He started the car and drove away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Willow Rosenberg was happy. The sun was shining, she had a day free of the cares of the world and she had Tara. As she thought this she unconsciously squeezed Tara's hand a little bit tighter. Tara was becoming used to this from Willow but she never said anything. She never would, even if it hurt. She knew Willow too well. She knew that Willow was still terrified of losing her again and truth to tell Tara had a similar fear.

Tara didn't know where people went when they died, that is to say died permanently. Her own memory of the time after she had been killed had now almost faded away but she knew from what had happened to her and to Buffy that something continued on.

Tara didn't know what would happen to Willow when she died, how the rules worked as far as atonement and forgiveness were concerned but she did know that wherever Willow went she would go with her. That didn't make her any the less determined to make sure that that day was postponed for many years to come.

"Here it is," said Willow as they arrived outside the large Wicca store. "You'll love this place." Willow led Tara inside. This was a magic shop to make Anya green with envy. It was far larger, had plenty of customers and, as far as Tara could see, it got away with charging higher prices.

Willow led Tara past the chicken feet, newt eyes and the Halloween masks towards the books shelves at the back. She knew the books they needed. The sooner they got them and did their research the better. Willow was extra motivated to complete the research on forget spells because that way she would have more time with Tara before they had to meet up with the Halliwells again later that day.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giles stood waiting for his luggage to come round. He had gotten off the plane at Sydney airport a little while before. Unusually for him he had slept through a lot of the journey and was still thinking about the vivid dream he had been having when he had been woken up to put on his seatbelt for landing.

There's no history of watchers having prophetic dreams he thought. That's just as well because a visit from Tutankhamen, the Wizard of Oz and his aunt Helen was the last thing Sunnydale needed at the moment.

Giles picked up his bag. Just the one suitcase as he did not intend to stay long. In fact he only had one case of things with him in Sunnydale anyway. He looked for the signs for the exit and the taxi rank and began walking.

A half hour later Giles got out of the cab ready to pay the fare when he stopped and looked around him. The driver had taken him to a deserted run down warehouse district of the type that would have been instantly familiar to any resident of Sunnydale. However it most certainly wasn't anywhere near where the taxi driver should have taken him.

"Are you sure..." Giles began as he turned back towards the taxi but was unable to say any more as the driver sped off without being paid. Concluding that the taxi driver was up to something Giles decided that he had better get out of the area as quickly as possible.

Giles had been in Sydney a number of times before and had taken little interest in what he had assumed would be a routine journey to the hotel. In fact he had again been thinking through the events of four years previously, oblivious to his surroundings.

Now Giles went from cursing himself for his blindness four years before to cursing his lack of attention now. He should never have allowed himself to be caught out like this. He was definitely getting soft.

Giles started to walk quickly in the middle of the empty road, keeping close watch to either side and making frequent glances behind him. He headed back the way the taxi had come on the principle that he would be safest back in the residential area of the city, where he could hopefully find another cab.

Two figures came out of a doorway across the road to Giles's right, quickly followed by two more. They immediately began to run towards him. From a distance they looked like men but they didn't act like men. Unlike human chasers there was no calling out, in fact no sound at all. As Giles dropped his case and began to run himself he realised that he was being chased by Bringers.

Giles was a lot fitter than most men of his age. Being responsible for training slayers all these years saw to that. Since the chasers were not super strong Giles felt he had a good chance of staying ahead of them until he found safety. Turning the next corner however placed this belief in serious doubt.

Two more Bringers were coming towards him. While Giles felt he had a sporting chance of dealing with two Bringers he knew he would have no chance of doing so quickly enough to stay clear of the four others that were behind him. He therefore turned right and ran up a set of outside stairs leading up the side of a warehouse.

Giles didn't know where he was going but at least all of the Bringers were now once more behind him. If there was no way out up these stairs at least he should only have to face one or two Bringers at a time coming up from below.

Suddenly Giles felt an agonising pain in his lower back. He had no doubt that he had been hit by a Bringer's knife, thrown by one of the pursuers. Giles staggered and turned, pulling out a handful of coins from his jacket pocket. He managed to hold himself together long enough to throw the coins in the face of the leading Bringer as he came close.

Giles found himself unable to remain on his feet any longer as the leading Bringer stumbled back into the next in line. Giles knew that this was only a brief respite however as he finally lost his hold on consciousness.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilah Morgan put her phone down. Well at least I managed to stop that little plan she thought. Lilah had just received confirmation that her efforts to stop Jasmine broadcasting had been successful. She was under no illusions however. Jasmine wouldn't give up. Having just managed to set up the Wolfram and Hart offices again after the visit of the Beast, Lilah had been doing little else other than trying to slow down Jasmine's progress.

Suddenly the door to her office burst open and there stood Darla with Drusilla following behind. Great, she thought, just what I need. Note to self she mentally added. Look for a new security chief. Dispose of the old security chief.

"If you're looking for your little boy you won't find him here," said Lilah. "Anyway he's not so little any more."

"I'm looking for you," said Darla. "I'm guessing you're not happy at the thought of becoming one of Jasmine's babbling idiots. What are you doing to stop her?"

"Why should I do anything? Why should you?" asked Lilah. "We're all on the side of evil aren't we?"

"Don't give me that crap, you're on your own side, so am I and so is Jasmine," replied Darla. "If Jasmine isn't stopped your cosy little number here as the queen of all evil is over and I'm sure you don't want that."

"If you're looking for a job..." began Lilah but she didn't finish because the impatient Darla changed to vampire face, quickly crossed the room and slapped Lilah hard, knocking her onto the floor.

"I'm not going to ask again. What..." Now it was Darla's turn to be interrupted as she was flung across the room against the wall. As Lilah got back to her feet she saw that Drusilla had been knocked unconscious and Darla was being held up against the wall by the neck.

"OK, let her go," Lilah ordered and watched as Darla massaged her throat. She didn't need air to breath but she needed to clear her throat before speaking.

"So who's she?" Darla asked looking at her assailant. "What is she? She's as strong as a slayer."

"Darla, meet Eve," said Lilah. "Eve's a...well let's say Eve's a weapon. I just don't know where to aim her yet."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I've got them," said Fred from her seat at the computer.

"Got what?" asked Dawn looking up from her book.

"My professor's notes," replied Fred. "I asked my friend Sara to send me everything on the professor's work on dimensional portals. It's just come through."

"Will that do it then?" asked Kennedy. "Can we stop with the books because this really isn't fun."

"Hey you volunteered," protested Dawn. First Buffy, then Faith, now Kennedy. Was there something about slayers and research she wondered.

"That was to give me a break from being chief prefect in the girls' school," said Kennedy.

"In answer to your question no," said Fred. "This'll help me to find and activate dimensional portals but we still need to find out which dimension Glory comes from. Besides I've got a lot of work to do before I can use all this. The professor's notes aren't exactly the ABC of inter-dimensional travel."

At that moment Kennedy's cellphone rang. She picked it up to find that Buffy was reminding her she was late. "Gotta go," said Kennedy. "With Faith and Gwen out of town I'm up for vampire patrol."

"I thought Buffy was looking after the potentials at the moment?" said Fred.

"Only the training around the house," said Kennedy with a smirk. "There's no way Buffy's gonna be away from her darling little sister whilst Glory's out there."

Dawn made a face at the departing Kennedy and went back to her book. The sooner Giles, Willow and Tara get back the better she thought. They probably already know what I'm trying to find out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gunn looked at his watch for the tenth time in the past ten minutes. At last! It was time. He got out of his car and walked over to the nearby alleyway in the gathering gloom. As he did so he could feel somebody watching him or at least that's what he thought. Just imagination he told himself because as far as he knew he had no mystic or magical powers. Anyway he knew very well he was being watched. That's what this was all about. He was the cheese in the trap.

Gunn continued on down the alley to the end and banged on the door. As he did so he heard something and quickly turned round. Behind him stood Angel. He realised the noise was deliberate because Angel could move silently when he wanted to. Being ready for some sort of confrontation Gunn already had a wooden stake in one hand and a bottle of holy water in the other.

"Two hundred years of experience and you think that'll stop me?" asked Angel smiling. This was another different Angel realised Gunn. How many more? We've had normal broody Angel, very broody Angel and Angelus. This was different again, this was happy Angel and the smile was a smile of contentment not the sadistic smile of Angelus.

Good job Willow left the 'perfect happiness' clause out of the last curse thought Gunn because Jasmine's got him thinking every day's Christmas Day.

"Well maybe it will and maybe it won't," said Gunn, "but you're not gonna be quite so happy when we've finished, that I promise you."

"You're wasting your time," said Angel. "He's not coming. Your plan to distract me while Connor takes me out's not gonna work. I got Connor an hour ago. Lorne's taking him to Jasmine. You don't need to fight. Just come with me and I promise you'll never regret it."

It was a quiet sound, a barely discernable movement of air but Angel heard it and as always moved inhumanly fast to turn and dodge aside. He wasn't fast enough however. The missile was thrown with superhuman force and homed into Angel's chest by changing direction at the last minute to compensate for his dodge. Even so Angel managed to get his hand in the way to protect his chest.

The missile looked like a wooden stake so as soon as he intercepted it with his hand Angel knew it couldn't kill him however painful it was. The missile only looked like a wooden stake however. It was something else entirely and was disguised as a stake in order to hide its real nature. As it hit Angel's hand the 'stake' burst with a small pop and spread in all directions.

With his back to the alley wall to enable him to see Gunn as well as try to see his unknown enemy Angel frantically tried to brush off the spreading substance but with no success whatever. Inside a few seconds it had completely cocooned him. Angel had no need of air so the cutting off of his air supply was no problem but something about the device was designed to incapacitate a vampire. Once the cocoon was complete Angel fell to the ground unconscious.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jasmine, back at the hotel found herself unable to see any more through Angel's eyes. She didn't know who Angel's new attackers were but she could see that they had at least one magic user of unknown ability. They probably knew about Jasmine's ability to see through the eyes of her followers which was why they had remained out of sight.

Jasmine went downstairs and spoke to Wesley. She quickly briefed him about what had happened. "Next time we see Angel he may not be our friend any more," she explained. "Take no chances, maximum security. When Angel shows up, kill him."

"If it's Willow come back, you'll be up against strong magic," he said.

"Willow?" asked Jasmine and listened intently as Wesley told her all he knew about Willow and Tara and the magic sisters they had been working with.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in the Alleyway several figures walked down the alley towards Gunn. He was relieved to see that one was Connor and he had an unconscious Lorne over his shoulder. Connor reached the end of the alley and put Lorne down alongside Angel.

The rest of the party was all female. "Cordy!" he greeted the first one he recognised and then recognised Faith and Gwen as they came closer in the gloom.

"Hi Gunn, this is Amy, Amy Madison," said Cordelia introducing the fourth woman to him. "She's an old school friend from Sunnydale and she's here to help with the magic."

"That thing was yours?" asked Gunn. Amy nodded in reply. "That's pretty cool. You must be one powerful witch."

Here we go again thought Gwen sourly. Charles Gunn, new girl, same old story.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giles came awake suddenly. He started to get off the bed before he remembered and began to wonder. He sat on the side of the bed and felt his back. Nothing, no pain, no damage and, as far as he could feel not even a hole in his shirt, assuming it was the same shirt.

Giles stood up and went over to the mirror. He was in a hotel room and he'd been lying asleep fully clothed on the bed. The suitcase that he had dropped when running from the Bringers was in the room with him.

Giles looked in the mirror and could see that he needed a shave. Obviously a few hours had passed since he was attacked but not a whole day. He looked at his watch. It was about ten hours since he had gotten off the plane.

Giles stretched and then stripped off his shirt. He used the mirror to confirm no damage at all. Either his memory was faulty or he had been healed. But by whom? Then he remembered. That is he remembered the last time he had been healed, not what had happened this time. Tara, who now called herself a Whitelighter, could have done this and she could have orbed him to this room. "Tara?" Giles said aloud but there was no reply.

A check with hotel reception confirmed that this was the hotel that he had booked and where he had intended to go after leaving the airport. "Are you feeling better now?" asked the clerk on the phone.

"Better?" asked Giles.

"Yes, your wife said you weren't feeling too good and would sleep for a while," explained the clerk.

"My wife?" asked Giles puzzled.

"Yeah, you know, beautiful American lady, long dark hair, really nice."

"Uh, sorry, I'm still a little out of it. But I'm fine. I'm OK, thank you."

Giles put the phone down. Long dark hair, that didn't sound like Tara. Who? Giles broke off his train of thought as he heard the key being turned in the door lock.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"It's no good, it's not working," said Prue from her position in the centre of the circle. "I get so far and then it all unravels."

"I was sure we had the spell right," said Willow sounding apologetic. Willow, like the other witches present, was sat cross-legged in a circle surrounding Prue.

Tara moved to put her arm around Willow and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "We do have it right," she said. "We all agreed."

"The mixtures are all OK," said Piper. "I did them myself."

"And I helped," added Paige. "We followed the directions exactly. We know things go wrong if you don't."

"Perhaps it's a matter of power, we just don't have enough power," suggested Tara.

"With the Power of Four plus you two," said Phoebe. "I don't think so."

"OK," said Prue. "Let's not squabble. I don't think it's the spell, I don't think it's the potions and I don't think it's the power."

The other five women looked at Prue expectantly, waiting for her explanation.

"When we were doing the chanting I felt resistance," she explained. There is at least one, maybe more strong sources of power in the world, in this part of the world, that are getting in the way."

"Glory," suggested Willow. Tara had told her and the Halliwells about the return of Glory. "I bet she's trying to stop us."

"I don't know if somebody was actually trying to stop us," said Prue, "so much as getting in our way just by being here, in our world."

At that moment Leo orbed in to join the witches in the Halliwell attic. "We've got trouble," he said.


	18. Wildlife

**Chapter Eighteen: Wildlife**

Buffy, Xander, Anya and Fred were treating themselves to a late breakfast at Castle Buffy after the departure of the throng of potentials. Kennedy had taken the potentials out early, on an out of town trek as part of her training plan. Dawn had managed to get out of it by pointing out it was a school day.

Buffy had been in two minds when Kennedy had suggested the trek. On the one hand she agreed that the potentials couldn't just stay besieged in the house indefinitely. On the other she was worried about what Glory might do. Unlike the demons and vampires Glory had no problem moving about during the day time. However on discussion she was persuaded to agree to the trip.

Although Buffy had decided to take a day off work in order to be on call in case anything happened Dawn had persuaded her to let her go to school. This was the first time Dawn had been any distance away from Buffy since they knew about Glory's return. Glory had made no further move since the meeting and Buffy had realised that Dawn was not happy about her sister's close attention over the past few days.

Faith had spoken to Buffy on the phone the previous night to report success in capturing Angel and Lorne but no success in finding a way to break Jasmine's thrall. Everybody thought it likely that the thrall would not be broken until Jasmine had departed from the world one way or another.

Anya had now moved into the new house. Without her demon powers she no longer felt safe in her old apartment. Xander still continued with his work but had taken a few days off to help out while so many others were away.

After breakfast the gang trouped into the front room. "I think I know where the most likely sites for portals are around here," began Fred picking up a folder of papers from the nearby cabinet. "There's a whole cluster of places that qualify downtown." With that she unfolded a town map and showed the others the places she had marked.

"They're all within spitting distance of the Hellmouth," pointed out Xander. "Is that a coincidence?"

"When you open one of these portals can things come out as well as go in?" asked Buffy.

Fred nodded. "Yeah, that's they way they work," she said. "If they didn't we'd never have got back from Pylea."

"In that case try to find somewhere else well away from the Hellmouth," said Buffy. "I don't want to take any chances. That sort of magic near the Hellmouth might open up more than we want opened."

"Um, it's not exactly magic..." began Fred quietly. She broke off when she saw the sceptical looks from Buffy, Xander and Anya. "But I suppose it amounts to pretty much the same thing. OK, I'll keep looking."

At that moment further discussion was broken off as Tara, with her arms around Willow, orbed into the room.

Willow and Tara explained about their lack of success in getting the forget spell done. "We've got to get rid of Glory before we try again," said Willow.

"And we have to wait for the Halliwells to get back as well," added Tara. She explained that Leo had taken the Charmed Ones away to deal with a new crisis.

"That would be Jasmine in LA I suppose," said Anya.

"LA? Oh no, I think they had to go to Europe," said Tara.

"Who's Jasmine?" asked Willow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Giles tensed as the door opened. He could see it was a woman carrying two bags of shopping in her arms. The woman turned before he could see her face and kicked the door shut. As she turned back to put the bags on the dressing table Giles finally recognised her.

It was probably the last person he expected to see. "Jenny? Is that really you Jenny? Are you one of these Whitelighters as well?" he asked.

Jenny smiled. "Ooh, very fast Rupert. That big brain's still working at top speed I see. Yes it's really me and yes I am 'one of those Whitelighters as well'."

Giles sat down on the bed. He shouldn't have been so stunned he knew, after all Buffy came back, Tara came back...

"Doesn't anybody stay dead any more?" he asked, more to himself than to Jenny.

"Well nice to see you too," said Jenny who was stung by this reaction and turned to go.

Giles moved fast, very fast as he reached the door before she did. It was only later that he realised she didn't need to use the door to leave. "I'm sorry," he said. "This is such a surprise, such a wonderful surprise, and I'm glad you're here, very glad."

"Yeah, well good job for you I was keeping an eye on you," said Jenny turning away from him.

"So why are you here, I mean why now," asked Giles. "Couldn't you have, you know couldn't you have come to see us, come to see me, before now?"

"Doesn't work that way Rupert," replied Jenny. "I've been keeping an eye on Sunnydale from time to time but I'm not a free agent. I obey orders from those who know more about what's going on than I do. Until now it would have caused more harm than good for me to let you know I was still around."

"I don't really see..." began Giles.

"Quite honesty nor do I," said Jenny, "but I trust the people making the decisions. They've just given me the green light to let you see me. I suppose now that you know all about Whitelighters they figure it can't do any harm."

Giles walked forward and put his arms around Jenny. She responded by kissing him but then quickly broke away. "Let's take it slowly," she said. "I don't know if I'll be around much after this business is over. Let's just get to know each other all over again shall we?"

"This business?" asked Giles.

"Yeah, you know: The First Evil, Glory, Jasmine, all that." explained Jenny.

"Jasmine? Glory!" queried Giles, alarmed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

All of Kennedy's training as a potential slayer had been to prepare her for a life as a lone warrior. Nothing had been said about leading, or rather helping to lead, an army of potential slayers and she'd had no leadership training as a potential or a slayer. She felt like the teacher of a new subject who bones up overnight to keep one step ahead of the pupils she teaches.

At present Kenney was finishing her lunch in the middle of a pleasant woodland setting. She had nearly finished when her cellphone rang. It was Vi. "We're ready," said the potential who Kennedy had appointed to lead the first squad.

Kennedy acknowledged Vi's message, put the phone away and stood up. She waved her arm towards Rona to signal her to move out with the second squad. She then sat down again to wait for another ten minutes before following herself.

A half hour later Rona led her squad through the woods, alert to catch the slightest unusual sound, her eyes closely following Ingrid who was acting as the scout. Abruptly Ingrid fell and disappeared from view. Rona immediately rushed forward only to trip over a rope across the path. She managed to roll with the fall however and found herself engaged in combat with Molly and Isabella.

Kennedy looked down on the fight from high up in a nearby tree. Neither group was gaining the upper hand, which was the way she wanted it. This wasn't really a competition so much as an opportunity to let off steam. She had done her best to make the two groups as equal as possible in fighting ability and experience.

Out of the corner of her eye Kennedy caught sight of a sudden movement away from the main action. She gasped as she realised what it was and quickly dropped out of the tree.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Transylvania! You've brought us to Transylvania?" said Piper. "That's where Dracula comes from isn't it?"

"Isn't this something the Vampire Slayer should be dealing with?" asked Paige.

"I don't think this is anything to do with vampires," said Leo. "It's just this is where you need to be to deal with what's gonna happen."

"Dracula's a work of fiction," said Prue, "partly based on the life of Vlad the Impaler. He's not real."

"Oh no, he's real all right," said Leo. "A very slippery customer that one. But he doesn't spend much time in Transylvania these days. We probably won't meet him."

"Only probably won't meet him?" queried Piper looking suspiciously around.

"Oh, I don't know," said Paige. "It might be romantic to meet the real Dracula."

"You can ask Willow about Dracula the next time you see her," said Leo. "I believe she and the slayer met Dracula a couple of years ago."

"And he survived?" queried Paige. "You're right, he must be a very slippery customer."

"If it's our business to deal with whatever this is all about then why haven't I...?" began Phoebe who broke off as the vision hit her.

Having seen the vision Phoebe just had to sit down on the ground. She had turned pale and her sisters gathered round in concern.

"What is it Pheebs?" asked Prue.

Phoebe swallowed and then explained.

"A meteor?" asked Piper. "That's not demonic is it? How come that's our business?"

"Um, because we'll be killed along with everybody else if it hits?" suggested Paige.

"How big is it Phoebe?" asked Prue, "any idea?"

"I dunno," said Phoebe, "pretty big. From what I saw it'll destroy the world if it hits, or a large part of it anyway."

"Perhaps we should go into the observatory and find out," suggested Piper sarcastically.

"Observatory?" queried Phoebe looking up.

"Yeah, the one Leo's just oh so coincidentally brought us to," said Piper looking at her husband.

Leo held up his hands. "Hey, I didn't know about the meteor. I was just told to bring you here."

"OK, an observatory," said Paige, "but why an observatory in Transylvania?

"Perhaps they're the first ones to spot the meteor," said Prue. "Different observatories look at different parts of the sky. Let's go inside."

"Anybody speak Transylvanian?" asked Piper.

"Rumanian," corrected Prue walking towards the observatory.

"I knew that," said Piper unconvincingly as she followed Prue.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dawn Summers walked along the corridor of the school towards the Principal's office. Up until recently she would have been worried to be called out of class this way but now that she knew Principal Wood, in fact had been with him when they had been in the team together battling evil, such mundane worries seemed too petty to worry about. Since she couldn't think of anything she'd done wrong lately she assumed Wood had a message for Buffy or something like that.

The Principal's secretary was not at her desk so Dawn knocked on the Principal's door and went in when she heard Wood call enter. On entering the room she found that the Principal was not alone. Sat in a chair opposite his desk was an elderly woman.

"Ah Dawn," said Principal Wood. "There's somebody here to see you. I believe you haven't met for some time."

"Grandma?" queried Dawn. "What are you doing here? Is there something wrong?"

"Wrong?" answered Grandma Summers standing up. "Does there have to be something wrong for me to visit my granddaughters? Well it's wrong that I've not seen you and Buffy for a long time but I only came to the school because the house is closed up. I didn't know you'd moved."

Dawn went forward and kissed her grandmother on the cheek.

"Goodness," said Grandma Summers looking up at Dawn, "haven't you grown!"

"You'd better take the rest of the day off Dawn," said Principal Wood. "Show your grandmother your new home."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be here when your mother died," said Grandma Summers as they left the school.

"That's OK grandma," said Dawn. "Are you feeling alright now?"

"I'm fine," said Grandma Summers. "Tell me everything that's been happening with you and Buffy."

"Everything?" replied Dawn doubtfully.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wesley Wyndham-Pryce finished his security check of the hotel and went into the office. All was in order. All the guards were in place, suitably armed and as ready as he could make them. There should be no repetition of the visit by Darla and Drusilla. Everything was in order and ready for Jasmine's move the next day.

The plan was simple: If the networks were stopped from coming to Jasmine she would go to them. Jasmine arriving at the news studios would be irresistible. That would take care of any opposition because after her broadcast things would move very quickly all around the world.

At present Jasmine was meeting a group of people upstairs and gathering her strength for the next day. For some reason the number of visitors had been tailing off and Wesley took this to be indicative of the actions of Jasmine's evil enemies. Well they may think they are being very clever he thought but it'll do them no good.

A loud roar shook the building and the window shattered. Wesley staggered then steadied himself by holding onto the desk. Somebody had let off a bomb near the front of the building. Wesley was in no doubt that this was an attack from the forces of evil. He grabbed his cellphone and barked orders into it at the same time rushing out of the office.

Upstairs the explosion awoke Jasmine. She had been having a nap after eating but was now fully awake. She stood up smiling, confident in her power and in her ability to convert anybody who attacked her into a devoted supporter. Before leaving the room she looked through the eyes of her guards in and around the hotel.

Wesley arrived outside the front of the hotel to see surprisingly little damage. Whilst a few windows had been broken there was no steaming crater and no pile of bodies lying around. Keeping low in case of snipers or other missile attack he hurried over to his nearest lieutenant, a policeman named George.

"Haven't seen anybody yet," said George. "Far as I can tell we've not had any casualties."

"What are they waiting...it's a diversion," said Wesley. "Come with me." Wesley rushed back to the front door of the hotel and into the entrance but suddenly bounced off an invisible barrier. It was as if he was an uninvited vampire trying to enter a private house. He was unable to enter and neither was George.

"Is it working?" asked Eve who was sitting in a car over the road in a side turning opposite the hotel, watching the action.

"Well I can see Wesley and he can't get back into the hotel," replied Lilah from the seat beside her. She kept looking through her binoculars. "So it's blocked off at the moment. We won't know if it's gonna work until Jasmine cuts loose. Be ready to get out of here quick."

From a roof nearby Faith and Cordelia were also watching. They had arrived to scout the area and had witnessed the explosion. Now they could see that there was no further visible attack but the guards on the outside of the building were frantically, but unsuccessfully trying to get back inside.

"What do you think's going on?" asked Faith. "Who's attacking the hotel?"

"Somebody with magical backup," said Cordelia. "It's not us so that leaves Willow's friends..."

"The sisters in San Francisco?" asked Faith.

"...or Wolfram and Hart," finished Cordelia. "I'm betting Wolfram and Hart because I can't see those witches using a bomb."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kennedy ran through the woods. She thought she could just get there in time and she was right. She arrived in the small woodland clearing just as the bear began to charge. It had homed in on the nearest potential who just happened to be Colleen. Colleen screamed as she saw the bear but at least she had the presence of mind to turn and run at the same time.

The bear of course was much faster than the potential and was only five paces away from her when it was hit by Kennedy who launched herself feet first at the bear's head. Kennedy was travelling at speed and knew how to deliver a brutal kick but the bear rode the blow. One thing Kennedy did not have was mass. Her 100 pounds, colliding with the 600 pound grizzly caused more surprise than damage and the animal remained on its feet.

Surprise turned out to be good for Kennedy because the confused bear stopped its pursuit of Colleen and backed away a few yards to assess what was going on and what was attacking it. Kennedy was now back on her feet and was not backing away.

She leapt in the air and screamed, hoping to get the animal to run away. Picking up on this quickly Colleen together with Rona, Molly and Isabelle, who were nearby and had rushed into the clearing, also began screaming and waving their arms.

The bear shook its head, reared up on its hind legs and roared. "Don't throw or fire anything at it unless you really have to," shouted Kennedy. A wounded bear is the last thing we want she thought.

Kennedy now held a knife in her right hand and knew she'd have to throw it if the bear charged at her and be prepared to move quickly to keep out of its way. With that jaw and those claws she knew she couldn't let it get too close. She'd have to hit the bear's brain with her throw to stop it. She figured that if she threw the knife hard enough and hit somewhere between the eyes that should do it.

The bear couldn't seem to make up its mind. It dropped back to all fours and backed away a few yards only to shuffle forward again and roar once more. Kennedy had no doubt that if she turned away she would have the bear right behind her. It was her aggression that was so far keeping the bear at bay. She decided to make the next move and moved forward slowly, screaming once again and waving her arms. The bear backed away.

Kennedy began to smile in the belief that the bear had finally made up its mind to leave when suddenly everything changed. Caridad and Lakshmi, hearing the screaming had come rushing through the woods towards the clearing. Unfortunately they arrived behind the bear leaving the bear between them and Kennedy.

The bear, hearing the arrival of the newcomers turned and prepared to charge. Kennedy was about to spring forward and stick her knife in the bear from the rear when a shot rang out, quickly followed by a second and a third. The bear fell in a heap.

Two men walked into the clearing carrying guns. They walked over to the bear and examined it. Kennedy did so as well, still keeping her knife in her hand. To her surprise the bear had been shot with tranquiliser darts. It was not dead, just deeply unconscious. One of the men took out a cellphone and the other turned to Kennedy. He looked at Kennedy and then at her knife, shaking his head.

"That's either the bravest or the most stupid thing I've ever seen," he said. "You were really going to take on a grizzly with a knife?"

"I was trying to frighten it away," replied Kennedy. "All those wildlife programmes say animals just want to keep away from people. I was just hoping to send it on its way."

"Were you hunting it," asked Rona who had come to stand beside Kennedy, "because I'm thinking it's been a long time since grizzly bears were found in these parts."

"Yeah," said the man. "We've been following it. It went crazy a while back and broke out of the truck being used to move it."

"So what are you, great white hunter and all that?" asked Kennedy.

"Oh, sorry," said the man. "I'm Marcus Hazel. I work for the LA Zoo. We've been following the bear rather than tracking it. It's been quite easy because ever since it broke free it's been heading this way in a straight line. Weird really, it's as if it was homing in on someplace."

Kennedy exchanged glances with Rona but neither of them said anything. Both had the same suspicion however that this was the work of The First and the bear had been aimed at the potentials.

"Well we've got to go," said Kennedy. She looked around the gathered potentials and counted to confirm they were all there. They were, including Sophie who was climbing out of a nearby tree. She turned and led the potentials away.

"Enough exercise for one day I think," she announced. "Let's go home."


	19. Astral Projection

**Chapter Nineteen: Astral Projection**

The truck began to slow down as it approached a large office building. Faith pulled herself up from her position clinging to the back of the truck onto the roof of the vehicle. She lay flat and spread her arms and legs to do her best to both stay out of sight and to stay in place as there was nothing to hold onto up there.

She had jumped onto the back of the truck when it had started off. She had taken herself by surprise so she was sure Cordelia and the others were just as surprised. It was her old impulsiveness coming back and danger or no danger Faith was pleased. This was what being a slayer was really about. Acting on instinct, not getting bogged down with details, research and planning. She had seen the chance and taken it.

The truck contained all of the captured guards from the hotel, including Wesley. Wolfram and Hart had waited for darkness before sending in their retrieval team. From a brief look at the retrieval team Faith could see why darkness was necessary. She knew very well what was due to happen to the captured people once they reached their destination.

The truck swung into the turning to the underground car park under the building and Faith succeeded in staying aboard. As the truck entered the building Faith took note of the name above the entrance for future reference. She might be able to call for backup before the big fight that would surely be coming soon but if not, then what the hell.

The basement was poorly lit but Faith remained prone and motionless whilst she quickly checked out the area. With vampires running this operation she knew she could be spotted even in such conditions. Nobody was visible so for the moment she only had to worry about those in the truck.

As the truck slowed Faith moved. She jumped onto a nearby car and then onto the ground. She knew there were two vampires in the front of the truck and another four with the seven captives in the back. She had no illusions that this was all there were but decided to take them out as quickly as possible before others arrived.

Without waiting for the truck to stop Faith sped to the passenger door of the cab and pulled it open. She achieved complete surprise and succeeded in staking one of the vampires immediately. The driver however escaped by jumping out of the other door yelling, without waiting to stop the vehicle. Faith followed immediately behind the driver. Unlike the driver Faith was able to keep her feet as she landed and was in prime position to stake him as he rolled to his feet.

The slowly rolling truck came to a halt with a bump as it struck the end wall at slow speed and the back door sprang open. Four vampires exited looking for the reason for the collision and the yelling. There was nobody to be seen as Faith had succeeded in getting out of sight before the truck stopped.

"What's going on?" called one vampire, a tall slim man in a leather jacket.

One of his companions, a rotund man of vaguely Polynesian appearance checked the cab of the truck. "There's nobody here," he called. "Well not anymore. There's a pile of dust on the passenger seat."

Suddenly one of the other vampires turned to dust. Faith had taken the chance to improve the odds by accurately throwing her stake into the heart of one of the vampires. The remaining three backed away from the unseen danger and clustered together at the open back door of the truck.

Faith was amused to see the vampires scared of the unknown, quite the reverse of the usual situation. She decided to continue the attack. She tossed two coins that she had pulled from her pocket in an arc to land one after the other behind the vampires. As they turned at the noise she launched her attack at full speed.

"What's that..." began one of the remaining vampires but he would never complete the sentence. On her way forward Faith had picked up the stake that she had thrown previously and put it through his heart.

Now it was a two against one fight and Faith knew the vampires didn't have a chance. It had been a long time since two ordinary vampires had been any sort of a challenge to her and these vampires were nothing special. Like a lot of vampires they'd only known the good times, easy victims and no threat to themselves. Being attacked like this was a new and frightening experience for them and neither lasted long.

Faith now went to the truck and jumped in. Everybody there was still alive but unconscious, including Wesley. Just as well she thought because they're probably still devoted to Jasmine. She jumped out of the truck again.

She was surprised that the vampires hadn't started to feed but she knew what that meant. Either these vampires had recently fed or they were under orders from somebody pretty powerful. Wolfram and Hart were powerful in their way but it was unlikely that a vampire would refrain from feeding because a lawyer said so. That left...

"Pretty impressive. If I didn't know better I'd say you were the slayer," said a woman's voice from out of the darkness. As she spoke Darla walked forward followed by Drusilla. Other vampires followed.

Faith was about to make a move when there was a shimmering in front of her. Tara appeared in company with Willow and Gwen. "What d'yah think? Nick of time?" said Gwen.

"Nah," said Faith. "You've just come to share the fun."

Both Darla and Drusilla knew who Willow was and they were not the only ones. Willow had acquired quite a reputation in the world of vampires and demons. "It's the red witch!" said one of the vampires behind Darla. All of them seemed to know what that meant and they all backed away. All that is except Darla and Drusilla.

"Hey, no need for anybody to worry," said Darla. "We all work for Glory and she's got an understanding with the red witch and the slayer."

"Yeah?" said Faith. "Well nobody's got an understanding with me." At that she moved forward, stake in hand.

Willow decided that immediate action was required and raised her hands up shouting "Freeze!" Everybody in the place froze in place except Willow and Tara.

"Neat," said Tara smiling at Willow.

"I thought so too," said Willow smiling back at Tara. "I got the idea from Piper Halliwell. She does it just by waving her hands. She doesn't even need to say anything."

Willow touched Faith and Gwen on the shoulder releasing them from the freeze. She explained to them what had happened.

"I meant what I said," said Faith. "I haven't agreed to any deal which lets these vamps go and feed on people."

"There's not exactly a deal," said Willow. "Buffy just said she agreed to meet with Glory again after considering her proposal. These two are Darla and Drusilla who set up the meeting with Glory."

"Good," said Faith starting forward once again with her stake.

"But you'd better leave Darla and Drusilla alone because they do work with Glory and there is a sort of truce at the moment," said Willow.

"Orb them back to Sunnydale and let Buffy decide what to do with them," suggested Gwen.

Faith, aided by Gwen now went around the rest of the frozen vampires and staked them all. This was somehow unsatisfying however. "You really know how to take all the fun out of the slaying don't you?" said Faith to Willow before walking over and knocking out Darla and Drusilla.

Meanwhile Gwen was talking on her cellphone to Cordelia to tell her what had happened and to arrange for the unconscious Wesley and his team to be collected.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy was patrolling. For the first time in she couldn't remember when, she was patrolling alone, just like she always used to. No potentials, no witches, no Scoobies or Watchers just Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Having spent the first hour of the patrol relishing the solitude she had realised why she was happier patrolling with somebody else. This was boring. So far there had been no vampires, no demons and practically no humans either, just that couple she'd disturbed getting to know each other in their car outside St Mary's cemetery.

It had been nice seeing her grandmother again and getting some news of her dad but she couldn't help wondering what had possessed her grandmother to come to Sunnydale just now. Possessed? Could this be another plot by The First? Buffy dismissed the notion. The First couldn't be at the back of everything. People did things for their own reasons and an unexpected visit from a grandmother was the sort of thing that just happened wasn't it?

Suddenly shouting disturbed the silence. Buffy turned and raced off in the direction from where the sounds came. As always she had no difficulty in homing in on the sounds, her slayer instincts acting as a sort of radar sense.

As Buffy reached the end of the street and turned the corner she saw two figures fighting and another on the ground. As she took in the scene she realised that the man who was fighting was a vampire. The other figure was a woman who executed a fast throw on the vampire and propelled him into a nearby lamppost.

Maybe the woman would have been able to win the fight. She was obviously skilled in martial arts although equally obviously not a slayer but she seemed too old to be a potential. Buffy did not take any chances however. As the vampire bounced up from his fall she came up behind him and dusted him with her stake.

The blond woman looked her up and down. "Thanks," she said, "I believe you're Buffy Summers. I'm Kate Lockley, we met once before, briefly."

"I don't recall," replied Buffy who could not remember meeting the policewoman but knew exactly who she was from Kate's recent run-ins with members of the gang.

"Back in LA," said Kate, "when I arrested your friend Faith."

"She wasn't exactly a friend at the time," muttered Buffy.

"But she is now?" asked Kate.

By now Kate's companion had risen to his feet. He was a tall African-American who Kate introduced as her colleague Sergeant Lewis Raymond.

"Well, nice seeing you again," said Buffy turning away.

"Wait a minute," said Kate. "You're the person I need to see."

Buffy stopped and turned back, hoping it was nothing to do with Faith. The sooner we get that all sorted the better she thought. She said nothing and waited for Kate to explain.

"It's about what's happening to this town," said Kate. "People are leaving but nobody can explain why, not even the ones who are leaving. Do you know why?"

Buffy glanced at Sergeant Raymond and back to Kate and raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"It's alright," said Kate. "Lou's a native of Sunnydale. He knows it isn't like other towns. In fact he knows more about it than I do."

"My niece used to tell stories about you," said the sergeant. "She was a year behind you at the old Sunnydale High. Stories about vampires and demon dogs and sudden deaths in the swim team amongst others."

"Uh, don't believe all you've heard," said Buffy.

"I don't, or rather I didn't but I know better now," said the sergeant. "But don't worry. You were always the hero, or should that be the heroine of the stories. I know you saved Diana's life at least once so I owe you."

Kate suggested that they find somewhere where they could chat and over coffee Buffy explained what she knew about The First and the Hellmouth. She decided not to mention Glory for the time being. She didn't want the police to go looking for Glory. Memory of what Glory had done to the Knights of Byzantium told her what was likely to happen if the police tracked her down.

In return Kate and Raymond gave Buffy details of the unusual incidents that had been happening over the past few weeks. Kate agreed to drop by with copies of the file records on the ones that most interested Buffy.

"The point is this thing is likely to get more powerful again. It's probably up to something right now so the more I know about what might be going on the better," explained Buffy. "Things generally build up to a peak until we squash it and then it all settles down again for a year or two."

"Does squashing include such things as exploding schools?" asked the sergeant who received a puzzled look from Kate.

"No comment," said Buffy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Several hours had passed since Wolfram and Hart had launched their attack on the hotel. Phase two was complete now that all of the external guards had been rounded up and taken away. A pity about Wesley thought Lilah but at least Darla promised not to touch him, for what that was worth. Lilah knew that relying on vampires to keep their promises was a fool's game but she didn't see she had any choice. Her first priority was her own survival.

Lilah and Eve continued to watch the hotel but as far as they could tell Jasmine had remained quiet. She had made no effort to escape and had not yet tested the strength of the magical cordon around the building. Lilah put her cellphone down. "They're sure she's still in there," she said. "What's she waiting for?"

"She'll get hungry after a while," said Eve. "Then she'll have to come out, or at least try to. Is everything ready?"

"As far as we can make it," said Lilah, "but we're dealing with the unknown here. I have no idea whether our people are strong enough."

Two figures came into sight walking towards the car. As they came closer Lilah recognised Cordelia but did not recognise Amy who was with her. Lilah decided to confront the two women standing and got out of the car. Eve followed suit.

"Hello Cordelia," said Lilah folding her arms and leaning on the hood of the car. "Back from the old school reunion?" Lilah always liked to hint that she knew about everything that was going on.

Cordelia glanced at Eve, wondering who she was but didn't ask. "How long do you think you can keep Jasmine locked up?" she asked. "Do you think you've got enough power?"

"Are you offering to help?" asked Lilah. "Now that you're demon lady we really should work together." Lilah's tone was sarcastic indicating that she did not expect her suggestion to be taken seriously.

Cordelia did not correct Lilah about the demon crack. Cordelia now knew that she had never been part demon but noted with satisfaction that Lilah was not as well informed as she thought she was. Or perhaps she knew the truth and had decided to hide the knowledge. You could never tell with Lilah.

"Dark magic won't be enough," said Amy. "Somebody like Jasmine will just lap it up. What you need is white magic, or at least a combination of the two."

"And you are?" asked Lilah.

"Let's just say we're here in reserve," said Cordelia, "ready to pick up the baton when you drop it."

"Well we've got the best magic users money can buy," said Lilah turning to Amy, "but if you're looking for a job?"

Suddenly Eve moved towards Cordelia. She intended to hold her and question her about what help she could be in dealing with Jasmine. Besides Eve found sitting around for hours looking at a quiet hotel boring. Working at Wolfram and Hart was meant to be dangerous, evil and dangerous but not boring.

Cordelia was taken by surprise but her automatic defences were not. Eve grabbed Cordelia's arm and immediately screamed in pain as she was propelled ten feet backwards onto the ground. Cordelia briefly glowed but then returned to normal.

"Can't get the help these days," said Lilah disdainfully looking at Eve as she got to her feet.

"Speak for yourself," said Cordelia. She then wrote her cellphone number on a small piece of paper and handed it to Lilah. "We won't be far away. If you do need help stopping Jasmine, give me a call."

"Maybe I've already got enough help," said Lilah who nevertheless put the paper into her pocket.

"I wouldn't count too much on Darla and Drusilla if I were you," said Cordelia looking at her watch as she walked away. "They'll be on their way back to Sunnydale about now."

Cordelia and Amy walked away. Playing it cool Lilah unhurriedly got back into her car but then frantically grabbed her cellphone and dialled. Eve, rubbing her shoulder, got in beside her. "Damn but she didn't look tough," she said.

Lilah continued to wait on her phone as it rang without answer.

Inside the hotel Jasmine stepped away from the second floor window. Very soon they'll all have something else to think about she thought and smiled.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The four Halliwell sisters and Leo orbed into the front room of the Halliwell mansion thanks to Leo and Paige. They were all quiet and subdued. Phoebe and Paige sat down. Prue and Leo remained standing whilst Piper went into the kitchen to make coffee A few minutes later she returned and they all sat down.

"OK," began Prue. "Let's make sure we've all got the same facts. We have a large meteor or asteroid heading towards Earth. If nothing's done it'll be here in about 30 days and it'll wipe out all life on the planet." Prue looked around the room and the others nodded.

"But on the good side we must be able to stop it otherwise Phoebe wouldn't have been sent that vision," pointed out Paige.

"Yeah," said Phoebe, "that's the way it works. I get the vision and we stop it happening."

"Unless we got the vision too late to stop it," said Piper doubtfully. "From what you said that's a mighty big meteor. I saw those disaster movies too you know."

"Why should it be too late?" asked Leo.

"I'm thinking this meteor is all very coincidental," began Piper. "We know there are one or two big evils in the world at the moment. Maybe that meteor has only just been given a nudge in our direction. Maybe we didn't get a warning before because there was nothing to warn about until now."

"I'll pop upstairs and see if they know anything else about all this," said Leo and with that he orbed away.

"You spoke to the Rumanian guys Prue," said Phoebe. "They didn't seem all that bothered by the meteor. Don't they realise that it's heading for us?"

"No they don't," replied Prue. "Seeing something in a telescope and working out exactly where it's going are two different things. It'll take them a few days at least before they work all that out."

"But why do this?" asked Phoebe. "If this meteor destroys the world there's nothing left for the bad guys either. No more good guys but no more evil guys either."

"The bad guys are not always running on a full tank," said Piper. "Besides, there's even some human lunatics who'd think it'd be great to destroy the world and take everybody out with them."

"Maybe they've got somewhere to hide until after the meteor hits and then they come out and take over," said Paige. "Somewhere like the Whitelighter place but in the other direction if you get what I mean."

"This is beside the point," said Prue. "Whatever caused it, it's coming and we've got to stop it as quickly as possible."

"Don't we have 30 days?" asked Paige. "We should be able to figure out something in that time. We sometimes don't get 30 minutes."

"The trouble is the closer that meteor gets to the Earth the greater the effort it'll take to divert it," pointed out Prue. It'll be ten times more difficult a week from now."

"Do you think diverting it is the best option?" asked Phoebe.

"What else do you suggest?" asked Prue.

"Well we can try to divert it as you said." began Phoebe "Or perhaps we could try to destroy it, blow it up somehow."

"The trouble with that is the pieces left over might still bombard the world," said Prue. "But we might need to try it. Piper, you and I'll research ways to divert the meteor. Phoebe and Paige, you research ways to destroy it."

Same old Prue thought Phoebe. In charge and giving the orders, just like she'd never been gone. Phoebe couldn't bring herself to resent it however. She was still glad to have her big sister back.

Piper had a similar but opposite reaction. She was quite relieved not to be the eldest sister any more. She had never enjoyed the role, had never thought it suited her and was happy to have Prue take charge once more. She smiled to herself. Phoebe and Paige both seem to be doing whatever Prue tells them to she thought. I wonder how long that'll last.

"When Leo gets back I'll ask him to fetch Willow and Tara," said Piper. We're gonna need all the help we can get here."

"Ask him to get onto the other Whitelighters too," said Prue. "If we need a lot of power we might need to round up an awful lot of witches in a hurry and Leo can get that organised."


	20. Waiting

_Chapter Twenty: Waiting_

Kennedy and the potentials arrived home later than she had planned. Still, she thought a stop for a meal together had been time well spent. Everybody's coming together, we're not all strangers any more.

As Kennedy and the potentials walked up the driveway Fred came out to see them and stop them. She warned them that Buffy and Dawn's grandmother was visiting and they should all watch what they said.

"You mean she doesn't know about the slaying and all that?" asked Rona.

"Nope," replied Fred, "and that's the way Buffy wants it to stay. As she spoke Fred noticed a stirring amongst the potentials in front of her and turned to see that Tara had appeared with Willow and Darla. Darla appeared to be unconscious.

Willow and Tara let Darla down to lie on the ground and Tara then disappeared again.

"Who is she?" asked Caridad. "And is she alright?"

"Is she another potential?" asked Molly.

"She's a vampire," said Willow. "Her name's Darla and she's very dangerous, so stay back, well back."

"The Darla?" asked a voice from the back of the group who remembered her training about well known vampires. "Isn't she dead?"

"All vampires are dead," said Annabelle as if everybody didn't know that already.

"She was up and kicking when we met her earlier in the week," said Vi, "ask Isabella."

As the potentials asked Vi and Isabella about the earlier meeting with Darla and Drusilla Willow moved aside with Kennedy and Fred. "Is Buffy about?"

Fred explained about Buffy going on patrol and also informed Willow about the visit of grandma Summers. "So how did you capture Darla," asked Fred. "Was she in LA?"

"And why didn't you dust her?" asked Kennedy.

As they spoke Tara reappeared with Faith and an unconscious Drusilla. At the same time Buffy appeared although in a more mundane way as she had just finished her patrol.

Under direction from Faith the potentials carried Darla and Drusilla inside where they were secured in the basement under lock and key as well as a magic security spell which Tara cast on the door.

"OK," said Buffy. "It's time we had a meeting to bring each other up to date and decide what we're gonna do next." She looked at Kennedy. "I don't want to leave the potentials out but it'll take all night if we include everybody."

"How about including the team leaders and they can tell the rest of the potentials what's going on," suggested Kennedy who explained about her organisation of the potentials into teams.

Later that evening after Xander and Dawn had taken grandma Summers back to her hotel for the night the group gathered to talk. Everybody filled in everybody else on what had happened to them. They all agreed that The First was probably still active and had been responsible for sending the bear after the potentials.

"What's it gonna do next?" asked Rona. "This thing's not gonna stop is it?"

"It's a sign of weakness," said Anya. "It means it doesn't have any demons or ugly old vampires or such."

"Or even Bringers," added Kennedy.

"Which is all good news but we still need to put it away somehow," said Buffy. "When I get this stuff from Kate we'll see if we can get any ideas about what else it might be up to. I'm hoping we might get a clue about where that Bringer HQ might be."

Tara looked up as if listening to something. Willow knew what that meant. "Sorry," said Tara, "I've got to go, I'm needed." She gave Willow a quick kiss on the cheek and orbed away.

"Must be like having a hot line to the guy upstairs," said Faith whilst looking at Willow.

"I suppose," replied Willow a little sadly.

Buffy put her arm around Willow and gave her a gentle hug. "She'll be back soon," she said smiling. "It's great having her around again."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The lights of an orb in progress appeared in the grounds of the new Summers home. It disappeared to reveal four figures. Giles, Jenny and two young Australian potentials, the identical twins Mary and Elizabeth.

The two potentials looked around in awe. "This is really America?" asked Mary.

"Didn't you say we were going to California?" asked Elizabeth. "That means Hollywood right?"

"Yes, this is California and yes Hollywood is in California but we won't be going anywhere near there," said Giles. "California is a big place."

"Don't get used to this Rupert," said Jenny. "I'm not gonna be your mystic taxi service..." Jenny broke off as if listening to something. "Duty calls, " she said. "Gotta go. I'll see you soon."

Giles was about to say something but had no time as Jenny disappeared. As he turned back to the house he saw Dawn coming to meet him. He introduced her and the two new potentials.

"Was that Tara with you just now?" asked Dawn who had obviously seen the disappearing orb. "Did she have to rush off again?"

"No, that wasn't Tara, that was Jenny," replied Giles as he walked towards the house. "She was called away."

"Oh," said Dawn and turned and followed Giles and the two Australians. "Wait a minute, Jenny? Jenny Calendar?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Perhaps she can't escape," suggested Eve, "and all we have to do is wait, wait for her to die of starvation or go back to where she came from. She must be hungry by now. Or can she eat normal food?"

"It's never that easy," said Lilah. "She hasn't even tried to get out yet. No she's waiting for something, something bad for us. Something bad for everybody." Does that make me one of the good guys now thought Lilah? She dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

Eve and Lilah were continuing their observation of the hotel in which the Wolfram and Hart mages had confined Jasmine. This was now the third day of the siege and the two women had moved to an apartment on the top floor of a nearby block where they had a good view of the front of the hotel. Lilah had a helicopter and a pilot on the roof at all times for a quick getaway in case Jasmine did suddenly break loose.

"So why don't we go in and take her by surprise?" asked Eve. "That's always the best tactic, move first, do the unexpected."

"And what, join her glee club?" responded Lilah sourly. "We still don't know any way of protecting ourselves from her thrall. Sending people in would only give her an army...or a good meal."

"Well blow the place up then," said Eve. "Wolfram and Hart have some serious ordinance don't they? What are you waiting for?"

Lilah looked at Eve as if making up her mind about something. "All right, you might as well know," she said. "The Senior Partners do have that sort of thing standing by. The trouble is we don't know if it'll be enough but it'll take out the whole city, including us."

"Nuclear weapons?" said Eve astonished. "That'd start a nuclear war. Everybody would think the country was being attacked by the Russians, the Chinese, terrorists or whatever."

"Exactly," said Lilah. "Now you know why that's the last resort. But the Senior Partners will still do it if Jasmine breaks out. Better one city than the whole world."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," said Eve.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A short distance away another woman was also watching the hotel. Gwen stared out of the window at the building wondering what she was doing still sticking with Cordelia and the others. Never figured myself for a hero she thought. I wonder if that's what heroes usually think?

Gwen realised she could just walk away but if things went wrong without her there'd be nowhere to hide. Aha she thought, that's why heroes go heroing. Control freaks like me. We all think everything will go wrong unless we do it ourselves.

Cordelia put the phone down and walked across the room to stand beside Gwen looking out the window. "Still nothing happening I suppose?"

"Nada," confirmed Gwen. "You really think she's still in there?"

"Got to be," said Cordelia. "Lilah isn't hanging around with the full Wolfram and Hart Symphony Orchestra for nothing. Anyway we'd soon hear about it if she was on the loose."

"So what's our cunning plan?" asked Gwen. "Wait for the big fight and hope they both lose?"

"I've agreed with Tara that if anything happens I'll call her and she'll bring Willow at once and then we'll see who's got the strongest magic," replied Cordelia.

"At once?" said Gwen. "That could be interesting."

The doorbell rang. Cordelia glanced at Gwen who shrugged. Cordelia went across the room and opened the door. It was Amy and she had brought Connor with her.

"Any progress with Angel and the others?" asked Cordelia as the two new arrivals came into the room.

Amy shook her head. She went through all the ways they had tried to break Jasmine's hold, all without success.

"We did think for a minute that we'd brought Wesley out of it but he was faking it," said Amy.

"How did you know?" asked Gwen.

"I cast a glamour to make me look like Jasmine," said Amy. "It was obvious he was still in her thrall so I put him under again. We're not going to wake Angel up until we get something to work on somebody else. Too dangerous."

Angel, Lorne and Wesley were being kept sedated when not woken up to try to return them to normal. Amy and Connor had left them with Gunn on guard for the time being. Gunn had rounded up some friends to help keep watch on Angel, Wesley, Lorne and Jasmine's captured guards.

Connor had made himself a sandwich whilst the three women were talking. He moved over to the window and ate it whilst staring at the hotel.

"Why did you bring Connor with you?" asked Cordelia. "He's not been any trouble has he?"

"Nah, no trouble," replied Amy. "But we've found out something. I don't know what it means."

Amy explained that her glamour disguising herself as Jasmine had produced a strange response from Connor. Connor it turned out did not see Jasmine the same way everybody else did. Amy repeated Connor's description of the rather grotesque Jasmine that he saw.

"What does it mean?" asked Gwen.

"I think it means Connor can see Jasmine the way she really is," said Cordelia. "He might be immune to her thrall. It's probably something to do with his time in Quortoth."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"We've got a visitor," said Ingrid to Fred sat beside her. Fred was teaching Ingrid to use the monitoring and security equipment.

Fred looked up, studied the screen and saw a young blond haired woman walking up the path to the front door. "I don't recognise her," she said. "But she doesn't look very threatening. Might be another potential. Go tell Buffy."

Glory reached the front door, rang the bell and waited. As luck would have it Dawn opened the door. Dawn stood there aghast, not feeling able to say anything.

"Hey Dawnie," said Glory in her familiar fake friendly way. "Long time no see. You're still growing then."

Willow now reached the doorway and her reaction to Glory was very different. She had neither forgotten nor forgiven what Glory had done to Tara. She moved Dawn aside and stood in the doorway.

"What do you want?" Willow asked aggressively at the same time glaring at Glory and preparing herself for a fight.

"Ooh it's the little witch with the big temper," said Glory in no way intimidated. "I'm here to see your boss sweetie. We need to talk."

By now Buffy had arrived and she stood beside Willow in the doorway. "What about?" she asked crossing her arms, in no way friendlier than Willow. "We aren't due to meet up again until tomorrow."

Glory became aware of many pairs of watching eyes peering at her from the various windows in the front of the house and stood back to take it all in. "What have we here? Witch school? Slayer school? Or has the witch started her own..."

"Just what do you want?" demanded Buffy. "If you're looking for a fight..."

"So aggressive," said Glory, "and I only came here to see my friends. It's not nice to lock up my friends, not if we're gonna work together."

"I'm not gonna let them run around loose feeding off people," said Buffy. "I haven't dusted them yet but if you push me..."

"Hostages?" said Glory and laughed. "I thought you knew me better than that. Look, you do what you like. I'll wait out here for ten minutes. If they don't come out I'll come in and if that happens sweetie a lot of people will die."

With that Glory walked away and sat down on a seat nearby on the edge of the driveway. She took out a mirror and began to fuss with her hair. Buffy shut the door and looked at Willow. "Could you do it now?" she asked.

"I could start it now," Willow replied. "If you recall I don't need to be nearby to make it work."

Faith and Kennedy arrived in the hallway. "Is it a fight?" asked Kennedy who was carrying an axe.

"Maybe, I hope not," Buffy replied to her. She turned back to Willow. "As soon as they've left, do it," she said quietly. She then turned to Faith and Kennedy. "Get the vampires. Willow and I'll keep watch."

"You're not letting them go?" said Faith. "We can take this Glory bitch. You did it without us. The three of us and Willow, she won't stand a chance."

"Maybe, maybe not. Don't forget I died last time," said Buffy. "Somebody will probably die this time if it comes to a fight and I don't want to lose anyone. Besides, I'm not exactly letting them go."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tara and Jenny waited for the rest of the Whitelighters at the meeting to disperse and orb away before going over to speak to Leo. Leo had done most of the talking at the meeting, explaining about the giant meteor that was on course to destroy the world. He had given details about the deflection spell which as many witches as possible would be casting in just under twenty four hours time.

"Why did you want us to stay behind?" Jenny asked Leo.

"How else can we help?" asked Tara.

"Could you two gather up all the Sunnydale witches and take them to the Halliwells as soon as possible," replied Leo. "The big deflection spell is plan A. If it doesn't work plan B will be to try to destroy the meteor. Failing that they'll try to whittle it down a little and maybe try to deflect it again. It's a question of seeing what works before it's too late."

"Do you really think the elders can negotiate a truce with the demon powers?" asked Jenny referring to something that had been said at the meeting. "Surely they can't be trusted?"

Leo shrugged, "Who knows? It's happened before. They don't want the world destroyed any more than we do," he replied. "Or at least I hope they don't. You can never really tell. But I expect them to try to take advantage if they can when it's all over."

"Are you sure this isn't all a diversion to get the magic users out of the way. A lot of innocents will be unprotected while they're gone." said Tara.

"We don't have any choice I'm afraid," replied Leo. "Everybody else will just have to do the best they can until the magic users get back. If we don't stop this meteor there won't be anywhere to get back to."

"I bet The First Evil tries to take advantage while the magic users are away," said Tara.

"The sisters think this meteor may have something to do with those dark powers in Sunnydale and LA," said Leo.

"You mean The First, Jasmine or Glory might have sent it?" asked Jenny.

"Perhaps they're all working together," suggested Tara. "If that's true they'll really cut loose once all the good magic users are occupied."

"So just how long will it take to get rid of the meteor?" asked Jenny.

Leo shrugged. "Who knows," he replied. "We can't afford to stop until the world's safe. But if anybody's got any better ideas..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Darla finished telling Glory about the trip to LA and the meetings with Jasmine and Lilah and about what had happened at the hotel. Drusilla contributed to the narration in her own way but as Glory had little idea of what Drusilla was talking about most of the time she largely ignored her.

Glory had already had brief reports from Darla by cellphone already. If fact it was the failure of the Slayers to search Darla and take away her cellphone that had allowed Darla to report her whereabouts to Glory. Glory smiled to herself. I bet they think I've got some Hellgod way of finding out what's going on she thought.

"So Jasmine's just sitting in her hotel, calm as you please, doing nothing?" said Glory. "She's gonna get hungry soon. She's not used to doing without."

"Last I heard nothing was happening," said Darla nodding. "But things might have changed by now."

"No, I don't think they have. I'd know if Jasmine had cut loose," said Glory. "I smell a rat, a big Jasmine rat. Well I..."

Drusilla screamed and fell writhing on the floor and started shouting. "No, not me, no! Wicked, wicked, wicked! He wants me like this, NO, NO, NO..."

Glory walked over to Drusilla and looked down at her unsympathetically. She gave Drusilla a light kick with her right foot. "Shut up!" she ordered but Drusilla either ignored her or more likely didn't hear her at all as she continued to rave.

"How long does this usually last?" Glory asked Darla.

"No idea," replied Darla. "I've never seen..." Darla broke off to scream herself. "No, no! They couldn't, they wouldn't dare." She staggered away with both hands held close to her chest.

Glory gave a final look down at Drusilla and decided she wouldn't get any sense out of her whatever she did to her and turned to follow Darla.

Glory went over to Darla and went to grab her by the throat but then changed her mind as she realised Darla would need her throat to reply to questions. Instead she slapped Darla hard on the face. "Shut up!" she ordered. "Now tell me what's going on."

"It's the witches, that Willow and her little pal I expect," gasped Darla. Darla fell silent again and shook all over before bending over and then slowly falling onto the floor.

Glory was running out of patience but she refrained from hitting Darla again in case she became as incoherent as Drusilla. Instead she knelt down beside Darla and took hold of her hand to get her attention. "What are they doing? Are they killing you?" she asked. Glory showed no concern whatever at what was happening to the two vampires. She just had an interest in finding out what was going on.

"The soul spell," gasped Darla. "They've done soul spells on us. Spells to give us souls."

"Is that all," said Glory. "Why all the fuss?"

"You'll find out if they do it to you next," replied Darla.


	21. Assault

**Chapter Twenty One: Assault**

Buffy and Dawn had agreed to spend Monday with their grandmother. "Whatever happens," Buffy said to Dawn as they left the house, "we must get her to leave town."

The morning was taken up with shopping with Grandma Summers taking the opportunity to buy presents for her granddaughters. This was followed by a leisurely lunch.

Grandma Summers shook her head and smiled. "I remember my grandmother always treated me as if I was ten years younger than I really was," she said. "And here I am having to keep telling myself you're both grown women. I nearly suggested going to the park for the afternoon or taking in the cartoon show at the cinema."

"Well we could..." Dawn began but then saw Buffy looking at her. "But of course we're much too old for that," she finished.

"So I'd better talk about the real reason why I'm here; the vampire slaying," continued Grandma Summers.

Buffy didn't quite splutter but she swallowed her mouthful of coffee in one gulp. "Vampire slaying? What do you mean?" she said.

Grandma Summers smiled. "I suppose it turned out for the best in the end but if it hadn't it would have been all my fault," she said.

"What...what would have been your fault?" asked Dawn giving a puzzled look at the equally puzzled Buffy.

"Haven't you ever thought it strange you were never identified as a potential slayer," said Grandma Summers to Buffy, "and given the same sort of early training as other potentials are given?"

"How do you know all this?" asked Buffy.

"I'll come to that," said Grandma Summers. "It was my fault. I had your name taken off the list, the list of potential slayers before the Council assigned you a watcher."

"How did...why?" began Buffy.

"There are so many potentials and most of them remain just that, potential," said Grandma Summers. "That's no sort of life for a young girl. I thought it was such a long shot, lightning striking twice and all that, that I had your name taken off the list."

"You were a potential, grandma?" asked Dawn.

"Oh no," said Grandma Summers, "not me, my sister. Only she didn't stay a potential. She became The Slayer. She was called Dawn as well you know. She looked a lot like you. I still miss her."

Buffy was stunned by her grandmother's revelations. This was the first she had heard of another slayer in the family. Dawn was equally stunned. She wanted to ask lots of questions about the previous Dawn Summers, Dawn Summers the Vampire Slayer but then realised it would have been Dawn Gregory, her grandmother's maiden name. Anyway Dawn could see that her grandmother did not have happy memories about the loss of her sister so she kept silent.

"I can understand why you did what you did," said Buffy. "But I don't understand how you were able to do it. Were you on the Council?"

"Oh no," said Grandma Summers. "They'd never have the likes of me on their precious Council. No, I'm one of the Guardians."

This produced blank looks from both sisters. "Guardians?" asked Buffy.

"The Guardians are women who...well I suppose we watch the watchers," said Grandma Summers. "Most watchers are pretty decent and devoted, like your Mr Giles, but every now and then we find it necessary to take action. Mostly we just watch and only become involved if things really get serious."

"Like now?" asked Buffy.

"Exactly like now," said Grandma Summers. "Oh don't worry, I've seen things a lot worse than this a few times and we're all still here."

"So how exactly are you going to become involved?" asked Dawn. "And I don't think you explained exactly how you got Buffy off the Council's list."

Grandma Summers handed Buffy a piece of paper with an address on it. "This is a vineyard about ten miles south of here," she said. "Go there and look in the basement. There's a slab in the floor at the south end you can move aside. In the hidden room underneath you'll find a Battle Scythe. It's a slayer weapon and you'll find it very useful in dealing with all your enemies."

Buffy handed the piece of paper to Dawn. "That's one of the places mentioned in Kate's reports," said Dawn. "You were going to check it out. I bet it's where Caleb was going. We'll probably find a lot of Bringers there."

"Now the rest of what I have to say is for Dawn only," said Grandma Summers. "I'd like you both to say nothing about me or the guardians to anybody. It's really important that nobody knows we exist. That includes slayers, watchers, potentials, everybody. Tell everyone you had a dream about the scythe."

"I'll think about it," said Buffy. "I'm long past making open promises to people who try to control me, whoever they are."

Buffy stood up, leant forward and kissed her grandmother on the forehead. "Please leave Sunnydale today, before dark. It's not safe for you here. Dawn, I'll see you back home, before dark."

"Don't worry, either of you," said Grandma Summers. "As soon as we've finished our little chat I'm taking a taxi to the airport." Buffy nodded and walked away.

"So what do you want to talk to me about?" asked Dawn.

"We find the best way to recruit new guardians is to chose suitable close relatives of a slayer," said Grandma Summers. "That's how I was recruited."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cordelia had only just fallen asleep when she was awoken by banging on the door. She stood up and started towards the door only to be forestalled by Connor who got there first. It was Lilah and Eve was with her. They hurried into the room as soon as the door was open.

Gwen and Amy had also dozed off but they had also been woken up by the noise. "What's up?" asked Cordelia. "Has she broken out?"

"Not yet," replied the agitated Lilah, "but it won't be long now."

"What makes you say that?" asked Gwen.

Lilah explained that all of her mages had upped and left suddenly about ten minutes before without any explanation whatever. Lilah was convinced that it was part of a plan by Jasmine.

"She's done something to divert them," said Lilah. "She'll be coming out soon. Whatever you've got you'd better get ready to use it."

Connor went over to the window to look at the hotel. Cordelia turned to Amy. "I'd better call Tara..." she began but cut off as she saw an orb in progress. It was Tara herself and she had Faith with her.

"That was quick," said Cordelia. "I was just about to call you."

"Why, has something happened?" asked Tara.

"No, but it's gonna, and quite soon," said Amy. "All the Wolfram and Hart magic users have left."

"I'm afraid you need to leave as well," replied Tara, "you and Cordy. There's a big crisis and we need all the magical talent there is."

"You can't take them away," said Eve. "You'll leave us with no magic users at all."

"If this isn't a crisis what is?" asked Gwen.

"Believe me, this is worse," said Tara. "Much worse."

"But this is a set up," said Lilah. "It's Jasmine using her power to divert all the magic users. It's gotta be."

"You may be right but we still need to go, right now," said Tara holding out her hands to Cordelia and Amy. "I'll explain as soon as we get there."

"And I'll explain for the rest of you," said Faith.

Rather reluctantly Cordelia and Amy took Tara's hands and she orbed the three of them away. Faith explained what Tara and Jenny had explained to the people in Sunnydale about the meteor and the need to save the world by diverting or destroying it.

"Save the world?" said Gwen. "By the time they do that Jasmine may not have left much of a world to save.

"So you're here to hand out orders again then," said Connor. "What's the brilliant plan this time oh mighty slayer?"

"You're not very good at the sarcasm are you?" said Gwen to Connor. "The brilliant plan worked brilliantly last time as I recall."

So that's a Slayer thought Eve. She doesn't look like much. I bet I can take her. "It better be brilliant," said Eve, "because if Jasmine gets out we're all dead."

"Shut up!" ordered Lilah.

"Or what?" said Eve. "You gonna sack me? They might as well know. Nothing like a little extra incentive."

Everybody in the room stared at Eve as she explained what Lilah had told her about the senior partners and their decision to destroy the city if Jasmine got out of the hotel.

"Well that's the plan then," said Faith. "We go in."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tara orbed into the Halliwell home with Cordelia and Amy, the last of the Sunnydale magic users. Once there Tara explained to Cordelia and Amy why they were needed and the full background concerning the threat of the meteor to the world.

Already present in the house were the Halliwell sisters and Leo plus Willow, Giles, Anya, Dawn and Fred. Dawn wasn't a magic user of course but in view of her background as a mystic 'key' Willow and Tara felt it wouldn't hurt to have her take part in the spell casting in case she was able to add any power to the mix.

Fred was very much not a magic user but Willow had thought it a good idea to invite her along as well in view of her knowledge of physics and mathematics. At present Fred, Willow, Giles and Prue were having a detailed discussion about the projected path of the meteor and the most efficient way to deflect it.

"No, no, no," said Fred. "If you do that you'll be wasting a lot of energy. What you need to do is slingshot it around the moon and into outer space."

"But won't that mean letting it get a lot closer before we do anything?" asked Prue. "That's a pretty scary plan. If it goes wrong we won't get a second chance."

"And it might go wrong Fred," said Giles. "Nobody knows if we'll be able to do it at all, let alone as late as that."

"Isn't there any way we can destroy it altogether?" asked Willow. "I thought the idea was to at least whittle it down a little."

"We've had second thoughts about that," said Prue. "If we break it up we're likely to have a lot of large pieces still coming this way. It'll probably be even more difficult to deal with a lot of meteors than it will be to deal with one big one."

"Rather like being bombarded by a lot of bombs instead of one big bomb." said Giles. "From the point of view of destruction and loss of life the result could be much the same."

"What we need to do then is to destroy it completely so there isn't anything much left over," said Willow.

"Or so that whatever is left goes off into outer space," said Fred.

"So what do you guys suggest," asked Phoebe joining the discussion. "Take over the nuclear arsenals around the world and send them off into space? That might save the world but the other consequences would be very bad politically."

"Well everything's set up for the big spell tomorrow," said Prue. "Magic users all round the world will be doing the deflection spell. If it doesn't work then by this time tomorrow we'll have to think again about plan B. I think we should leave the nuclear option as a last resort."

"Perhaps we could leak the information about the meteor and 'suggest' that the nuclear governments fire their missiles at the meteor themselves," suggested Fred. "You could then use magic to make sure the missiles get to the right place."

"I hope we can avoid doing anything with nuclear weapons," said Willow. "I'm thinking magic and nuclear bombs, probably not a good combination."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy arrived early at the meeting place for the rendezvous with Glory. In view of the absence of so many allies she had decided to come alone but Xander, as usual had insisted on coming. Buffy knew him well enough to know that he would have followed her anyway so she agreed to let him come.

Kennedy had suggested that Buffy take one team of potentials with her but she had refused as she could see no way that they would make a difference if it came to a fight with Glory. On Buffy's insistence Kennedy was now holed up at Castle Buffy with all systems and potentials on alert.

Buffy leaned back against the wall of the warehouse and put the Troll Hammer down by her side within easy reach. She had no illusions. If it came to a fight with Glory she'd find it a lot more difficult than she had the last time. However even though she didn't have the help of Willow or a robot she knew she'd progressed as a fighter herself since their last contest. She also knew that she was in much better shape all round than she had been in the lead up to the fight over Dawn.

Xander noticed that Buffy was quiet and no doubt musing on what was likely to happen. He did however take seriously the appointment he had given himself years before to lighten the load on the Slayer by lightening the atmosphere whenever possible.

"Hey, why the long face?" he asked. "You're still the hottest blonde in this town. You've got the Xan-man with you and as I recall at least half the guys in High School had the hots for you. The only guys I've ever seen with Glory were those ugly midgets. If that's the best she can do she's not even in your league."

"I don't think Glory...half the guys in High School?" asked Buffy.

"At least..." Xander broke off as an orb in progress appeared in front of them. It cleared to reveal Jenny Calendar. Buffy and Xander had found out about the return of Jenny when Giles had returned the previous day and had met her when she and Tara had arrived to explain about the meteor and to take away the magic users.

Buffy had been both happy and sad to see Jenny. Happy because Giles was happy and happy in fact to see Jenny herself. Sad because the return of Tara and now Jenny made her think of her mother who had been taken so suddenly and so much before her time.

Buffy had found time to have a quiet word with Tara and Jenny before they left. Jenny had confirmed that Joyce Summers death had indeed been permanent, that she had moved on and was happy.

"That doesn't mean she didn't love you and Dawn Buffy," Tara had said, "because I know she did, a lot. Just like I know you'll both see her again one day."

Buffy came back to the present with a comment by Xander to Jenny. "I thought you had to be with the big Wicca convention?" he asked.

"I was never a witch," said Jenny. "They don't need me so I thought I'd be more use with you guys, even if it's only for a fast exit."

"Thanks," said Buffy at the same time moving forward and embracing Jenny as the friendliest way she knew of confirming that this really was Jenny and not an imitation by The First.

"Still not brave enough to meet me on your own Slayer?" said Glory walking out of the darkness. "I recognise the poodle but who's the new girlfriend?"

"Hey," said Jenny.

"I echo that hey," said Xander.

"Let's leave out the insults and get down to what we're here for," said Buffy. "You asked me to arrange for you to leave this world. Well I agree but there are conditions."

"Why should I listen to conditions?" said Glory. "If you don't do what I want you're stuck with me and you know what that means."

"If the magic users of the world don't stop the meteor that's on the way to destroy us all it doesn't matter what you do." said Buffy. "The first condition is that you've got to wait until the world has been saved. If it's destroyed anyway I really don't care what you do."

This was the first that Glory had heard of a meteor on the way to destroy the world and her first impulse was to doubt that it was true. "How do I know this is true?" she asked but even as she asked she realised that it must be true. It would be easy enough for her minions to check out something like that. In fact her clever little demons should already know about it. If they've been keeping secrets, heads will roll she thought, quite literally.

"I don't care whether you believe it or not," said Buffy. "I'm just telling you what's happening and why we can't send you on your way yet. As soon as Willow and the others are back we'll send you on your way as soon as we can."

"You said conditions, what other conditions?" asked Glory.

"You know all about Jasmine, Darla must have told you," said Buffy. "Same as the meteor. We need to stop Jasmine before we help you. If Jasmine can't be stopped it doesn't really matter what you do."

"You think she's stronger than me?" scoffed Glory. "Puh...leese!"

"If you're so strong why don't you stop her yourself?" asked Xander.

Glory smiled. "Why should I fight her?" she asked. "I'm sure I'd win but there's all you hero types to soften her up first. Saving this world's your business, not mine."

"We're not asking for your help, but you won't get our help until we've dealt with Jasmine and the meteor," said Buffy. "In the meantime you need to tell us all you can about your home world. We can't send you home if we don't know where home is. At the moment we don't even know what it's called."

The discussions continued for a while longer about the identification of Glory's Hellworld. As they spoke a new figure joined the group.

"Well nice to finally see you at last," said Ben looking at Glory.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"There's somebody out there," said Ingrid looking closely at the CCTV screen. "Get Kennedy." Annabelle who was Ingrid's companion on watch left the room.

Kennedy was coming downstairs having just reviewed the preparations upstairs. Rona's team was on alert up there and first aid, buckets of water, hosepipes and weapons were all prepared, the same as they were downstairs. Kennedy was certain that something was going to happen that night. There was no way the big bad was going to miss out on an opportunity like this even if it wasn't responsible for diverting so many of their allies elsewhere.

When Annabelle asked Kennedy to come to the surveillance room Kennedy pressed the alarm button on the wall of the hallway to alert everybody that this was probably it. The buzzer sounded for ten seconds and then cut out but by then everybody should have been armed and ready for action.

At first Kennedy thought it was a false alarm as she saw a single figure walk up the driveway to the front door. However Ingrid switched to the camera covering the street to show at least a dozen figures gathered outside.

The front doorbell sounded and when Ingrid switched back Kennedy looked closely at the figure outside. It was dark out but the man was now well lit by the lights at the front of the house. It was a policeman. Kennedy didn't rush to the front door. She'd earlier issued orders that nobody was to answer the door except her.

"He might need our help," suggested Annabelle.

"I don't think so," said Ingrid switching back to the view of the street. "He's not the only cop out there. Look!" Ingrid zoomed in closer to reveal police uniforms amongst the gathered crowd.

"Look at that!" said Annabelle pointing at the screen, specifically at a number of misshapen figures amongst the otherwise humanlike gathering. "It's more of those Turok-Han." Annabelle had seen them before but Kennedy and all of the potentials had been shown pictures.

"Keep watching!" ordered Kennedy as she left the room. "Keep up all round surveillance. Keep me, Vi and Rona informed," she added unnecessarily as that was the routine that she had already emphatically laid down.

The front door was being covered by Vi and two of her team, Chao-An and Molly, all armed with loaded crossbows and with other weapons nearby. Kennedy walked up to the front door and paused. The ringing had stopped but Kennedy could still feel the presence of the visitor outside. This was because it was a vampire, an 'ordinary' vampire.

Kennedy opened the door and took the fake or former policeman by surprise as he had just about decided that nobody was coming. He started to perform the role he had been given. He wasn't very good at it and his English accent made his attempt to pretend to be an American cop quite ridiculous.

"Oh hello love, there's been an accident out on the street," he began. "Would you mind if we brought in some casualties until the ambulance gets here?"

Kennedy knew a diversion when she heard one and anyway had no intention of inviting vampires inside. She quickly staked the vampire and went back inside, locking the door behind her. She immediately went back to the surveillance room.

"There's another group out back," said Ingrid. "They're moving!" and indeed they were and so was the group out front.

"Go tell Rona what's happening!" Kennedy ordered Annabelle who ran out of the room.

"Vi," called Kennedy following close behind, "They're coming from front and back. You take charge at the back, I'll stay here."

Everything now began to cut loose. A Turok-Han smashed the front door down and stormed inside to be immediately dusted by bolts fired by Molly and Chao-An. The sound of breaking glass sounded in the lounge to the right as another Turok-Han and a number of Bringers jumped inside straight through the windows.

Leaving Molly and Chao-An to guard the front door Kennedy went to join the fight in the lounge with axe in hand. As she did so she heard Rona call from above. "Keep firing, get that guy with the burning torch!"


	22. The Far Side

**Chapter Twenty Two: The Far Side**

Faith had brought amulets prepared by Willow in an effort to provide some protection against Jasmine's thrall. Faith was already wearing hers and Gwen happily put one around her neck. Connor did the same more reluctantly but Eve and Lilah both refused them.

Lilah explained that it would upset the Senior Partners if she started using white magic and Eve claimed it would interfere with the 'empowerment' she had already received from said Partners.

"OK then," said Faith who put the amulets down onto the nearby table. She then immediately turned back and hit both Lilah and Eve. Lilah was knocked unconscious exactly as Faith intended but although Eve staggered back she was not knocked unconscious or even knocked down.

Eve now showed that she was rather more than Lilah's PA and that her 'empowerment' endowed her with more than human strength and speed. In many ways she was comparable to a slayer in fighting ability.

Eve naturally reacted violently to Faith's attack and returned the blow with interest propelling Faith across the room and into a wall cabinet. Faith, with the resilience of a slayer bounced off the cabinet and immediately dodged Eve's follow up attack.

Connor watched with interest but saw no reason to get involved himself. Gwen stood aside but removed a glove in case she needed to use her electricity. Her sympathies were with Faith but Faith had started the fight so she decided to wait and see if Faith could finish it.

Gwen had been too busy herself that evening in LA to watch Faith in action so she decided to take advantage of seeing for herself just what was so special about a slayer. Like Faith, Gwen had not known that Eve was anything special although she did remember what Cordelia had told her about Eve trying to jump her. If this was payback from Faith it didn't really make sense because as far as she tell Faith and Cordelia didn't get on very well and anyway Cordelia hadn't really been bothered by the incident.

Meanwhile the fight continued. The combatants were evenly matched, even that is in strength and speed but far from even in experience. Faith was the survivor of many fights with demons and vampires as well as the occasional angry fellow slayer. In fact although it was Eve who worked for Wolfram and Hart it was Faith who had much more experience of fighting dirty.

The fight would have ended quite quickly had Faith been going for the kill but she was not. She was in fact handicapped by not knowing how much of her strength was required to subdue her opponent without killing her. Although she had started the fight believing that Eve was human she now had her doubts. However she had no intention of taking any chances and killing a human. Never again she thought.

Faith began backing away from Eve as if she'd taken one blow too many and was looking to get out of the fight. Anybody who knew anything about Faith would have been suspicious of this but Eve knew nothing about Faith and had the overconfidence of inexperience.

Thinking to finish the fight in her favour Eve stepped forward to deliver the winning hit only to have her feet swept out from under. She recovered quickly but not before Faith had achieved her purpose and slipped a chain with an amulet on it over Eve's head. She stood back as Eve fell back to the floor, writhing in agony and screaming.

The screaming and writhing did not last long however and Eve then lay quietly on her back looking up at the ceiling. She seemed to be stunned rather than unconscious but made no move to get up or remove the amulet. Faith meanwhile walked over to where Lilah was lying on the ground and slipped another amulet over her head.

"OK give," said Gwen fingering her own amulet. "These Amulets aren't what you said they were are they?" Connor was also looking suspiciously at the one around his neck.

"They're exactly what I said they were," said Faith. "Willow designed and powered them to give protection against losing your free will. I think Tara helped. Willow hopes they're powerful enough to protect against Jasmine."

"So what's the matter with her then?" said Connor walking over and looking down at Eve who continued to stare upwards into space.

"The amulet doesn't just protect from Jasmine," said Faith. "It protects against being under any sort of outside control."

"Wolfram and Hart?" asked Gwen.

"I suppose so," said Faith. "They certainly seem to have hyped her up physically. It stands to reason they did something mentally as well. I think she's now getting used to thinking for herself again."

"Do you think one of them would break Jasmine's hold on Angel and the others?" asked Connor.

"Maybe," said Faith. "But we don't have time to try it at the moment."

Lilah began showing signs of waking up and Eve also began to stir. The other three watched as Lilah came round and got unsteadily to her feet. Rather more slowly Eve also stood up.

Lilah rubbed her sore jaw and glared Faith. "I thought we were allies," she grumbled.

"Now we're allies," replied Faith. "Just as long as you both keep those amulets on."

Eve meanwhile was stretching and exercising. She went over to the table and lifted up one end with difficulty. "What have you done to me?" she said angrily to Faith. "It's gone."

Eve started to remove the amulet but Faith stepped forward and took hold of her arm to stop her. "Before you do that, think! Do you want to be a puppet again or do you want to live your own life?" she said. "Do you want to go back to being one of their pawns, one of their expendable pawns?"

"Yeah," said Eve walking away from the others. "I need to think." And the first thing I need to think about is how I got into all this thought Eve. At the moment she had no memory of how she had come to work for Wolfram and Hart.

At that moment Lilah's cellphone rang. She answered it and acknowledged the brief message. "If you're going to do anything you'd better do it now," she said. "My people have lost track of Jasmine. It looks like she's making a move."

"I thought you lost all your magic users" asked Gwen.

"Not all surveillance is based on magic," replied Lilah.

I bet she's got the hotel bugged again thought Connor. We'll have to do something about that once this is all over.

"Well anybody who's coming had better come," said Faith. "Now we'll find out whether Willow's magic's strong enough."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I was wondering when you'd get round to me," said Glory smiling. "You being the all powerful First Evil and me being well, evil."

"I've come to offer you a deal," said Ben/The First. "You kill the slayer and all her friends and you can have this world for yourself."

Glory turned to Buffy. "If this is the standard of evil you usually have to deal with, no wonder you're still standing," she said and turned back to The First. "You don't just look like Ben, you think like him as well. You don't get it do you? I don't want this world. If I did it would already be mine."

"He wants to become corporeal and take over the world for himself," said Buffy. "He doesn't want to give it to you, whatever he says."

"Gosh, what an evil plan," said Glory sarcastically to Buffy. "Do you really mean he might do something...evil like lie to me or double cross me?" She turned back to Ben/The First. "You know, you should get another name. Something like The First Really Nice Guy or The First Guy you can trust. You might get somewhere then but The First Evil, it does sort of give the game away."

Ben now morphed into a copy of Glory herself. "I don't see why I should bother to spend any more time on you," she said to Glory. "I don't actually need you. It's a pity, we would have made a great pair. Never mind, enjoy your new soul when you get it." With that The First disappeared.

"Oh yes, souls," said Glory quite unconcerned. "Thanks for giving Darla and Drusilla souls. I can understand what Drusilla says now, when she says anything at all. She's actually quite sane. But don't think of trying the same thing with me. It wouldn't work and I'd regard it as a very unfriendly act if you get my meaning. It wouldn't stop me killing all your little friends and a great many more."

"Don't you think you should be leaving?" asked Xander. "The First can pretend to be you. Who knows what it might be telling your people to do right now?"

Glory suddenly looked worried, as clearly she had not considered that possibility. "I'll be in touch," she said. "I'll allow your witch friends some time to sort out their problems but I'm not going to wait forever. You might be fond of this place but I'm not. If I have to hang about much longer I'm gonna make some changes." With that Glory rapidly left.

"Well, at least we've got a little time," said Xander. "But a sane Drusilla? I don't know if that's better or worse."

"Yes, she didn't seem bothered about Darla and Drusilla having souls," said Buffy.

"You shouldn't make the mistake of assuming that just having a soul equals being a good person," said Jenny. "Some of the worst monsters in history started out as humans with a soul."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An orb appeared on a barren windswept hillside. Heavy clouds raced by overhead and waves crashed onto a nearby beach. The orb lights cleared to reveal Tara, Willow and Cordelia.

"You weren't kidding," said Cordelia to Tara, shouting to be heard above the noise of the high winds, the crashing waves and the cries of seabirds above. "Wet, windy and miserable. No wonder nobody lives here."

Tara led Willow and Cordelia inside the half ruined hut nearby. That it still had its roof on was a wonder if this weather was typical but there was no longer any glass in the windows. "I'll fetch the others," said Tara and disappeared.

"What did she call this place again?" asked Cordelia.

"_Ile des Cochons_," said Willow. "It's a French owned island. It means Pig's Island in English. We're in the Indian Ocean just about the opposite side of the world to San Francisco. I think this old hut used to be used by whalers. I don't think anybody ever comes here these days apart from the occasional scientific group."

Tara reappeared with Dawn, Anya and Amy. Like Willow and Cordelia they were all laden with bags and well wrapped up against the weather although this time Tara had managed to bring them directly inside the hut.

Cordelia sniffed and wrinkled her nose. "I can see, or rather smell, why they call it Pigs' Island," she said.

"Pigs' Island!" said Anya. "Oh great. Fred and Giles get to stay with the sisters while they do their magic in a nice house in San Francisco and we get...Pigs' Island. Somebody tell me again why we're here."

"This is about as close as we can get to the other side of the world to San Francisco without actually being in the ocean," said Tara. "With magic users all round the world joining in we need to have a second strong focus on the opposite side of the world to the Halliwells to give the spell the best chance of working."

Meanwhile Willow and Amy were emptying out the contents of the bags in preparation for the spell. "Come on," said Tara to the others, "we've got to clear out this rubbish to make room on the floor to draw the pentagram. We'll only be here for a few hours. We can block up the windows to keep the weather out and make this place a little more comfortable."

"We might only be here a few hours this time," said Amy. "But as I recall we might have to keep repeating this spell until we're sure it's worked."

"So we'll probably be smelling like pigs for weeks," said Cordelia. "Wonderful. Did I ask to be a witch?"

Willow felt cold and she too noticed the smell which she thought came from all the bird guano both inside and outside the hut, but she was happy. She exchanged smiles with Tara who was feeling the same. What more could she want, working with Tara again, trying to save the world together and even if they failed they'd surely be going to the same place together after this.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In her short career as a slayer Kennedy had been in a few tight spots but facing two Turok-Han on her own was right up there with the tightest. She'd taken out two bringers with her axe immediately after entering the lounge but had then been in a fight for her life.

Kennedy's first thought had been to lead the Turok-Han away from the house and lose them before doubling back. In the meantime the potentials should hopefully have been able to deal with the Bringers on their own. However a glance outside at a group of 'ordinary' vampires who were unable to enter the house soon put paid to that idea. She'd be even more outnumbered if she left the house than she was at present.

Kennedy continued to play for time, reasoning that the longer she kept the Turok-Han away from the potentials the better. Sooner or later she'd have the chance to get rid of one of them and then it'd be one-on-one. Kennedy was confident that she would be able to take out any vampire one-on-one however ugly it was.

As the fight continued Kennedy realised that she had an advantage in the confined space of the lounge. Turok-Han were not team players. They were individual killing machines, each dedicated to getting to her with no thought of co-ordinating their attacks. In fact they kept getting in each other's way, a fault that Kennedy did all she could to encourage by the way she moved around the room.

Meanwhile upstairs the poor efforts of the outside vampires to set fire to the house had entirely failed and Rona's team had succeeded in dusting three vampires outside with crossbow bolts. There was plenty of fighting noise coming from downstairs so Rona decided to lend a hand down there.

Taking Elizabeth and Shannon with her Rona led a charge downstairs, just in time to kill a Bringer who was about to put a knife into Ingrid who was one of three potentials fighting in the large hallway.

The fighting at the back of the house consisted of Vi, Annabelle, Caridad and Mary holding off half a dozen Bringers. This was not a fight at close quarters as the four potentials were keeping the Bringers at a distance with crossbows, making sure that they all did not need to reload at the same time. Even so things would soon come to a head as there were now very few bolts left.

In the lounge Kennedy was delighted to see one of the Turok-Han stumble but immediately horrified to see that he had stumbled over the body of Lakshmi. Horror turned to fury when the Turok-Han paused to examine the body. Kennedy hoped that Lakshmi was only unconscious but she was not likely to live long in the hands of a Turok-Han.

Kennedy launched an attack, an attack that was nearly fatal, fatal to her that is because there was still a second Turok-Han in the room and it immediately took advantage to knock Kennedy across the room, stunning the slayer. The first Turok-Han, attracted by his colleague's success and not wishing to miss the kill left the body of the potential and also raced over to the stunned slayer.

This happenstance meant that both Turok-Han had their backs to the incoming orb of Jenny with Buffy and Xander. They were aware of something happening behind them however because they both stopped before reaching Kennedy and turned round. They were nowhere near fast enough however to avoid Buffy's swing of the Troll Hammer. One swing was sufficient to cannon both Turok-Han across the room, one with a crushed skull and the other also completely unconscious.

Buffy took no chances of a quick recovery by the Turok-Han and followed up by dusting one of them. She picked up a fallen axe and took its head off. Xander beat her to the other vampire by hammering a stake into its heart until it finally turned to dust. The day Xander Harris staked a Turok-Han thought Xander, oh yeah, just wait until I see Anya and Willow again.

Kennedy took a deep breath, relieved and worried at the same time. Jenny Calendar was bent over the body of Lakshmi and to Kennedy's great relief she began the glowing healing that Tara had previously made familiar. She'll be alright thought Kennedy, you can't heal the dead.

Molly came into the lounge. She had a cut on her forehead which was still bleeding. "They've gone, Vi and Rona and the rest have just driven away the last of the Bringers out the back," she said.

"That just leaves the other vampires out front," said Kennedy.

Buffy led the way out through the broken front windows. The sight of one slayer, 'The Slayer' as far as some of them were concerned, with her Troll Hammer together with Kennedy with her axe plus Xander and Molly close behind was too much for the remaining half dozen vampires who realised that the Turok-Han had failed. They turned and ran.

Buffy was furious at another attack on her home and the people she was protecting. She had no intention of letting any vampires escape if she could help it and managed to take down two of them before the rest disappeared into the street outside. A thrown stake from Kennedy accounted for the final casualty in the vampire army.

"Pity some of them got away," said Buffy. "But I don't think we should go far from the house tonight in case there's another attack."

"It's not always a bad thing to let a few get away," said Xander. "They can spread the word about how The First and his big uglies got their asses kicked."

"Yeah," said Kennedy. "It'll make it more difficult for him to find recruits. Most vamps don't want to commit suicide."

"Have we lost anybody?" asked Buffy quietly as they walked back up the drive towards the house.

"We've got a lot of wounded," said Molly, "but if Lakshmi's OK I don't think anybody died."

"I think Jenny can heal the wounded," said Buffy.

"What about all this damage?" asked Kennedy staring at the front of the house. "I hope you've got good insurance."

"It's OK," said Buffy smiling at Xander. "I know a good carpenter who's got years of experience in this sort of thing."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In the end it was just Faith, Gwen and Connor who went into the hotel. Lilah claimed that she had to stay in charge outside and anyway she wasn't hero material. Eve just left without saying another word but without removing the amulet.

The magical barrier around the hotel was still in place but it had deteriorated considerably and just provided a weak resistance which Faith and Connor were able to push through. Gwen was stuck outside until Faith pulled her through. Quite clearly the barrier was long past the point when it would provide any sort of block to Jasmine getting out.

Deciding that surprise was probably impossible Faith had elected to go in through the front door. The three of them entered the foyer which was clearly empty. So was the office.

"It'll take all night to search the whole place," said Connor. "How about we split up?"

"Not a good idea," said Faith. "We might be able to take this Jasmine between the three of us but one-on-one? Maybe not. Anyway I don't think she's the type to cower in the basement. Take us to the number one suite. I'll bet that's where she hangs out."

But it wasn't where she was hanging out now. Quite clearly Jasmine had been using the Wedding Suite but she was no longer there. A search of the hotel from top to bottom didn't quite take all night but it did confirm that Jasmine was no longer in the building.

Faith, Connor and Gwen walked out of the hotel over to the Lilah's car where Lilah was waiting, poised to take off if Jasmine had been the first out of the hotel. On being informed of Jasmine's absence Lilah telephoned her observers who all insisted that they had not seen Jasmine leave.

"Well she's not here," said Faith. "That's for sure."

"Where would she go?" asked Gwen.

Lilah paled and suddenly looked very worried. "The TV station. She's been trying to get on the air for days. If she manages that she'll have the whole city, the whole world, working for her by the morning."

"Everybody get in!" ordered Faith opening the door of Lilah's car. "Take us there now, as quick as you can!"

But despite a frantic drive to the TV station and a mad rush through the corridors once they were there, there was still no sign of Jasmine. Whatever Jasmine was doing she had postponed her plans to broadcast her influence by TV and seemed to have completely disappeared.


	23. Full Circle

**Chapter Twenty Three: Full Circle**

Since the vineyard was already on their check out list Buffy had not so far mentioned what her grandmother had told her and Dawn about the Battle Scythe. With the magic users still absent and Faith still in LA she was faced with the decision to put off heading to the vineyard or once again leaving Kennedy to almost quite literally hold the fort. Since she felt it important to get hold of the Scythe as soon as possible she spoke to Kennedy. Kennedy rebelled.

"Look," said Kennedy. "I've done what you wanted up to now but I'm a slayer too. I think I've shown that I know what I'm doing. If you want a slayer to stay home then fine, but it's your turn. You stay here and I'll check this place out."

Buffy realised that Kennedy was right. It wasn't fair to leave her 'babysitting' again. She'd earned the right to have her turn at handling something like this herself. The trouble was all Buffy's instincts were telling her she had to be there herself or things wouldn't work out.

Buffy knew it might just be a case of her not wanting to let go, of not trusting somebody else to do what she wanted to do herself but she couldn't be sure. She knew that a slayer had to act on her instincts. If she didn't and things went wrong she would never forgive herself.

"OK," said Buffy. "You can come. I'll ask Jenny to take charge here. If anything happens she can fetch us back straight away."

Jenny agreed with the proviso that she might be called away on Whitelighter business. If she received such a call she had to respond straight away. If she didn't somebody could die. In that event Buffy agreed that Vi would take charge with Rona as her deputy but Vi should use her cellphone to call Buffy and Kennedy straight away if that happened.

"Why don't we all go?" asked Rona. "It all worked out OK when we went to close the seal and anyway you're going in daylight. That should help if there are any vampires there."

"Yeah," said Vi. "We're veterans now, just like my granddad was after Dieppe. We can handle them. Bring on the Bringers."

Buffy was pleased at the growth in fighting spirit amongst the potentials but was reluctant to use the potentials in this way. Although she didn't say so her main reason for taking the potentials with her to the school that night had been because she hadn't thought it safe for them to stay behind at the old house. Even so had she realised what she would be up against she might have left them behind anyway.

Buffy still considered that her main job was to keep the potentials safe. From what she recalled of movies with big battles it always seemed to be the attackers who suffered most of the casualties.

"Your time will come but not this time," said Buffy. "This is strictly a get in quick and get out again operation. If possible we'll do it without anybody seeing us."

Before she left Buffy gave last minute instructions to the potentials. "Don't let The First freak you out. Don't forget it can pretend to be me, Tara, Jenny or anybody else who was technically dead at any time."

Not unexpectedly Xander too insisted on coming. "In that case," said Buffy, "you can provide the transport."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The five other women sat around the pentagon that had been drawn on the floor, with Willow in the middle. They had been chanting for half an hour and were beginning to flag, more from boredom than anything else. The frustrating thing was there was no visible indication as to whether they were wasting their time or not. Any success they might be having as part of the world wide Wicca effort would be in events happening thousands if not millions of miles away.

At last Willow brought proceedings to an end. Everybody stood up and stretched. Tara walked over to Willow and they embraced. "Let's get straight back to where it's warm and dry," said Tara. "We can leave all this stuff where it is for our next stint if we need to do one. There's nobody here who's going to interfere with it and we've stopped up the gaps that let the birds get in."

Tara orbed back to the hallway of the Halliwell mansion with Willow and Dawn before returning to pick up Cordelia, Anya and Amy. When Tara returned from her second trip the Halliwell sisters had also just ended their session and were coming down the stairs from the attic. Piper volunteered to get everybody something to eat.

"Where's Fred and Giles?" asked Dawn but almost immediately she saw them sat together on the couch in the living room studying the screen of a lap top computer. She walked over to look at what they were doing.

Fred and Giles were clearly concentrating hard so Dawn said nothing to disturb them, just tried to make sense of what they were doing from looking at the computer screen. Phoebe came over and stood beside her. "What are they trying to do?" whispered Dawn.

"They're seeing if they can find out what's happening to the meteor," said Phoebe. "They're seeing if they can find anything that could give them a clue. Fred knows some people who know some people who deal with the Hubble Space Telescope."

"But that won't be any good unless they have the Hubble pointed at the right part of the sky," said Willow joining them.

"They do," said Fred looking up. "The word about the meteor seems to be out, at least within the astronomy community. It's a bit of luck that the Hubble was already in a good position to look in the right direction."

"So what's..." Cordelia broke off as she was hit by a vision. It was not like one of her old excruciatingly painful visions so it did not knock her over but what it showed shook her.

"What did you see Phoebe?" asked Paige and Cordelia realised she was not the only person to have a vision at that moment. Did she see what I saw she wondered?

As it happened Phoebe and Cordelia had not had the same vision. In fact Phoebe had seen nearly the same vision as she had seen originally. The vision still showed the death and destruction that would happen when the meteor hit. Phoebe was certain that the spell casting had had no affect and would have no affect on the approach of the meteor.

"I'm not surprised Pheebs," said Prue. "We had to try but we're trying to move a small world. I know we've got a lot of power but that would take a fantastic amount of power. We've got to try something else."

"So what does that mean?" asked Anya. "Have we been wasting our time because if there's no point in going back to Pigs' Island I'm not gonna be sorry."

"What about all those other magic users around the world?" asked Amy. "Do you mean all of that had no effect"

Phoebe shrugged. "I suppose not," she said. "Did you get the same thing Cordy?"

"Nope," said Cordelia. "What I saw was the Hellmouth. It's the Hellmouth that's pulling in the meteor. Somebody or something's got the Sunnydale Hellmouth all revved up to pull in this meteor. Until we do something about the Hellmouth, something permanent, we'll never stop it."

"Good Lord!" said Giles who was still engrossed in the screen of the lap top.

"Is that 'Good Lord' because of what I just said or is it a 'Good Lord' of your own?" asked Cordelia.

"One of my own I'm afraid," said Giles.

"We always get a 'Good Lord' from Giles when he finds out something important," said Willow to Phoebe.

"And it's usually something bad," added Anya.

"Well come on then Giles," said Dawn. "Don't prolong the suspense, there are people here who could turn you into a toad if they get annoyed."

"Well, according to the space telescope scientists the meteor isn't a danger to us," said Giles. "It'll come a lot closer but it'll still miss by a long way."

"Well they've got that wrong," said Phoebe. "It's coming all right."

"Yes, I have no doubt it is," said Giles. "But it's not coming yet. What I mean is it will only hit the earth if it's diverted from its present path."

"The Hellmouth!" said Tara. "That's what Cordy's vision's telling us. We've got to stop the power of the Hellmouth from being used to draw in the meteor."

"So if we stop this Hellmouth being used to divert the meteor it'll continue on its way without doing any damage?" asked Prue.

"Exactly," replied Giles.

"It's that same old song again," said Cordelia. "We've got to shut down the Hellmouth. How many times have we tried to do that?"

"Let's make this the last time," said Willow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilah Morgan arrived at her office early. After the past few days she was looking for some good news. Good news that is about the whereabouts of Jasmine. Last she heard nobody knew where in the world she was at the moment. Perhaps she's gone to some other world thought Lilah, somewhere the opposition isn't so tough. Huh she thought, I must be coming down with something. That was actually optimism.

Lilah hadn't seen Eve since she had walked away after the encounter with Faith. Lilah was quite happy about that. She had suspected that Eve was being groomed to take over from her. Anything like a black mark against Eve was good news for Lilah.

As Lilah left the elevator and walked across the foyer she thought it curious how happy everybody seemed to be. Even old Robinson had a grin on his face. Lilah nearly stopped dead in her tracks, struck by a dreadful suspicion but instead forced herself to continue walking. She carried on straight past her office towards the door to the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw through the glass that a number of people were gathered in her office.

"Miss Morgan," called her secretary Janet as she passed by but Lilah just quickened her pace. She heard the secretary call again just before she made it to the door. Lilah knew she couldn't outrun many people there so she deliberately went upstairs in the belief that any pursuit would go down.

Sure enough Lilah heard the sounds of pursuit thundering downstairs as she desperately rushed upstairs. Where to go, where to go? Obviously Jasmine had control of the building and that meant she controlled all the eyes in the building. Two floors up Lilah reached her immediate destination, the red library. This had no exit to the outside but she couldn't stay on the stairs for long and at least the library didn't usually have many people around.

As luck would have it the library was deserted. In fact had Lilah but known it the whole floor was deserted. Jasmine had not yet consolidated her control of the building and was currently having groups of staff visit her in Lilah's office.

Gasping for breath Lilah arrived at the elevators. As she stood waiting for the elevator she pulled her gun out of her purse and stood ready. She had decided to shoot if there was anybody or anything inside the elevator when it arrived. Lilah didn't know if Jasmine yet had control of everybody else in the building but had decided not to take any chances.

In the event the elevator was empty and Lilah was able to make use of her executive key to make sure it didn't go anywhere she didn't want it to. She had already decided not to try to escape the building through the underground car park or the front office as both would be full of Jasmine's minions. Instead she continued her upward journey.

The top floor of the building was the executive suite where Lilah sometimes stayed overnight but she stopped one floor short. Once again she had decided to avoid an obvious move despite the short term advantages of using the defences and weapons that were up there. Besides Jasmine might be there before her.

Lilah exited the elevator and immediately headed for the stairs once again and succeeded in arriving on the roof without seeing anybody. As she headed for the nearest emergency line Lilah saw movement to her right and fired without slowing down. It was one of the two roof guards. The other guard was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he's downstairs meeting the new boss thought Lilah or perhaps he's looking for me somewhere else.

In recent years emergency lines had been connected to nearby buildings to assist in evacuation in case of fire or terrorist attack. The roof guards were trained to help people use the equipment but all the permanent staff had received training as well. Lilah had privately decided she would be too terrified to ever use this means of escape but she was on her way to the next building before she remembered to be scared. Any more scared than she already was that is.

As she exited the harness on the nearby building Lilah knew she had to keep moving and moving fast. A lot of people would have seen her sailing across the gap. As she headed for the stairwell she pulled out her cellphone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy, Kennedy and Xander went in over the back wall of the yard surrounding the vineyard buildings. They circled the buildings and saw no sign of life but decided to take no chances.

"Remember," Buffy had warned. "We're here to get in, get the scythe and get out. We're not looking for a fight, not this time." On the way to the vineyard Buffy had briefed Xander and Kennedy about the scythe although she had managed to leave out the bit about her grandmother and the guardians.

Since the scythe was in an area below the basement they looked for a low level entrance and found one at the back of the main building in the form of a small window at ankle height which obviously provided light to the basement. Here Kennedy showed an expertise previously unknown to Buffy and Xander by producing a glass cutter and silently cutting and removing the window pane.

Buffy and Kennedy had no difficulty in squeezing through the small gap. Xander succeeded in getting through thanks to a strong tug from the slayers. Having reached the basement the three of them looked around. They were in a poorly lit wine vault containing hundreds, maybe thousands of barrels, presumably full of wine.

The basement was enormous, obviously extending not just under the building but under much of the surrounding area as well. From the far end of the vault came the sound of a regular pounding noise and from the same direction could be seen flashing lights.

"Well looky here," said Caleb walking out of the gloom on the right. "Look what the cat's dragged in."

"Ignore him," said Buffy. "It's The First. We've got to move quickly." With that she started to run to the far end of the vault followed by Kennedy and Xander. That should be where this scythe is she thought.

Behind the three runners The First stood and watched them go and then disappeared.

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Once again the bird had flown. Lilah had watched the evacuation of the Wolfram and Hart building from a nearby vantage point powerless to do anything. At last they arrived. A car pulled up at the kerb across the road and both Faith and Gwen got out. They don't look like Jasmine's merry men thought Lilah who decided to go ahead with the meeting. She walked out of the building and across the road.

"You're too late, she's gone," said Lilah.

"So you said on the phone," replied Faith. "Any idea where?"

"How do you expect me to know?" asked Lilah. "Every time I set this office up somebody or something comes along and wipes it out again. I've got nobody left."

"Ever get the idea you're on the wrong side?" asked Gwen.

"Get in!" ordered Faith. "Let's see what Angel thinks."

"He's back to normal?" asked Lilah.

"Oh yeah," said Faith. "Those amulets of Willow's are pretty powerful stuff."

The three women got into Gwen's car. About fifteen minutes later they walked into a motel room already occupied by Angel and Wesley.

"She doesn't know anything more than she told us on the phone," said Gwen.

"Or so she says," added Faith.

"Who's Jasmine got with her?" asked Angel. "What's their capability? We're likely to be up against them before long."

Lilah shrugged. "How do I know? I don't know who she's eaten and who she thinks is useful."

Faith grabbed Lilah and slammed her up against a wall. "Cut the crap!" she said. "Just assume she's got the intelligence to keep anybody who would be of any use. Take a long shot and assume she's only eaten the post sorters and floor cleaners."

Faith released her hold and stood back from a rather shaken Lilah. "Well there were no magic users in the building, you know that," said Lilah. "That leaves security guards, swat squad, special ops squad and the science guys and of course quite a few lawyers, secretaries and so on."

"The science guys," asked Angel. "What have they got? Chemicals, drugs, explosives, what?"

"I don't take any interest in the details," said Lilah. "I'm strictly a results gal myself. Anyway they're bound to have a few things I don't know about yet. That's the way those people always work."

"That all?" asked Wesley sceptically. "What about the Seers, the demon squad and the in-house vampires?"

"Oh them," said Lilah.

Faith once again took hold of Lilah and pushed her against the wall. She stared intently into Lilah's eyes. "You don't look the way Jasmine's people do but I suppose you might be faking it. Do you have a reason for playing games with us or is it just habit?"

"Careful," said Lilah sarcastically. "You don't want to kill another human being."

Faith gave Lilah a close eyeball to eyeball stare. "I don't need to kill you, just take you to meet a few of your sometime friends at the nearest vampire hangout and turn my back for a minute or two. I think I'd be doing a public service. Of course I'd stake the vamps afterwards."

Lilah took a deep breath and nodded. Faith let her go and stepped back. "OK," said Lilah. "Three H'raag demons and one Ixtell plus four house vampires." Over the next few minutes Lilah provided details of the Wolfram and Hart personnel and capabilities. Wesley asked questions and made a written record of all that was provided.

"Is that it?" asked Gwen. "Because you've said nothing about the bomb."

"Oh yeah," said Faith. "Why are we still here?" Faith looked at the puzzled Angel and Wesley. "Lilah told us that if Jasmine got out of the Hotel the Senior Partners would nuke the city."

"Sounds to me like Jasmine's made a deal with the Senior Partners," said Angel to Lilah. "And they hung you out to dry."

Gwen left with Lilah to take her home. Nobody trusted Lilah and the decision had been unanimous not to tell her anything, just see what she could be persuaded to tell them. After that it was agreed that it would be safest all round if they didn't have Lilah around. Even Wesley, with his history with Lilah knew not to trust her. She might be out of the loop with the Senior Partners at the moment but he was sure she'd take any opportunity she could to get back in their good books.

"So what's the latest with Gunn and Connor then?" asked Faith looking out the window at Gwen and Lilah getting into the car.

"No change," said Wesley. "They're still going in the same direction."

Faith and Gwen had been able to restore Angel, Wesley and Lorne in short order after leaving the hotel. They had then all set out to find out what they could about the whereabouts of Jasmine. All that is except Gunn and Connor who had been set to watch Wolfram and Hart.

It was Lilah's dramatic escape from the Wolfram and Hart building that had alerted Gunn and Connor to something happening inside. Together they had followed the Wolfram and Hart convoy as it left the building and headed out of the city. They were still following. Gunn driving, Connor making regular cellphone reports.

"Definitely Sunnydale then," said Faith.

"Oh yeah," said Angel. "Looks like it's all coming to a head at the Hellmouth. Not just Jasmine but everything else as well."

"Everything else?" asked Faith.

"Cordy called," explained Angel who proceeded to tell Faith what he had been told about the Hellmouth and the meteor. "When Gwen gets back I'll phone Cordy back. She said she'd ask Tara to take us to Sunnydale the quick way."

"What about Lorne?" asked Faith. "Isn't he coming"

"We're leaving him to mind the shop here," said Wesley. "As he's a demon it's best he doesn't get too close to the Hellmouth."

"The Hellmouth again," said Faith smiling. "This is where we came in. Plenty of vamps and monsters, what more could we ask for?" she paused and smiled. "When we win do we get a ring?" she asked.


	24. Scythe Matters

**Chapter Twenty Four: Scythe Matters**

Buffy and Kennedy ran into the group of Bringers in front of them, concentrating on knocking them aside rather than stopping and fighting. Xander, following closely behind followed the same tactic. Even so a blow from a slayer was not something to be taken lightly and fully half of the eight Bringers present were either dead or unconscious and the others had fled by the time the three runners reached the far end of the wine cellar.

There was no problem finding the entrance to the lower level as the Bringers had already levered aside the slab covering the entrance and there was light coming up from below together with the sound of hammering.

Buffy was about to jump down the hole when Xander grabbed her arm. "We can't all go down there Buff. This might be the only way out. We don't wanna be trapped down there."

Buffy paused. "OK, you two stay up here, keep the exit open," she said. "I'll be as quick as I can. Shout if you need any help." Giving Kennedy and Xander no time to argue Buffy dropped down into the hole onto the floor below without using the ladder leading down to the lower level.

Down below was a much smaller space. The hammering was coming from two Bringers who were trying to knock free what could only be the Battle Scythe which was embedded in a large rock. Two other Bringers stood nearby.

Buffy's arrival sparked two of the Bringers into action, the bystanders attacking with their knives. Buffy side-stepped the rush of the first Bringer, knocked aside his knife hand and delivered a killing blow to his neck. She stepped away from the falling body and kicked the knife out of the hand of the second attacker. She then took him down with a second kick to the head.

The Bringers trying to hammer the Scythe out of the rock seemed oblivious to the combat as they continued hammering away. Wasting no more time Buffy went over to them and knocked them both out by banging their heads together. Buffy knew she should kill them as well but she had always found it difficult to kill unless she was under attack herself.

Now could she pull the weapon loose? Buffy took hold of the Scythe and pulled. To her surprise it came loose immediately with no resistance, so much so that she nearly fell over backwards. A little disappointed that nobody had seen her King Arthur moment she became aware that the scythe was more than just a weapon.

Buffy closed her eyes and felt the power coming from the weapon. It made her feel more powerful, more alive. It was so obviously a weapon made for The Slayer. There was something magical about it. With this she could fight anybody. Even Glory was likely to come off second best.

Gotta go thought Buffy, can't hang around here, but as she turned she heard a loud crump from above and behind her. She walked across the room, looked up and found that the slab was now back in place, blocking her exit. Something had clearly happened to Kennedy and Xander, something that had not given them time to call out to her. She needed to get out somehow and help them.

The exit was about ten feet above Buffy's head and the ladder which Buffy had not needed on the way down was now lying on the ground. It had been wedged in the open space now occupied by the slab but had been dislodged when the slab was replaced.

Buffy picked up the ladder ready to use it to push up the slab from below but before she could do anything she heard a great rumbling and crashing from above and then saw dust falling from the cracks around the slab. Quite obviously somebody, presumably Bringers, had just dumped a great weight on top of the slab to prevent her leaving. Probably a load of those wine barrels thought Buffy.

Buffy placed the ladder against the slab and pushed upwards but to no avail. There was a limit to what she could do, strong as she was and clearly she'd reached it. What to do? She needed to get out quickly. Xander and Kennedy must need help. She had to think of something else.

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Buffy had come back out of the hole empty handed and now led the way back through the wine cellar. "No scythe?" Xander had asked.

"Oh yeah," said Buffy. "I got it but...I'll explain when we're out of here. It's complicated. We've got to get out of here quick."

As the three of them gained sight of the far end of the cellar Buffy pointed ahead. "Up those stairs, it's bound to lead to a way out."

"Why don't we go out the way we came in?" asked Xander as he followed Buffy and Kennedy. As he spoke there was a loud rumbling and crashing noise behind him back at the far end of the cellar. Neither slayer stopped as they jogged towards the stairs and Xander continued to follow.

"Because The First saw us," replied Buffy. "It'd be suicide to squeeze up out of that window if it's got someone up there waiting for us."

As they reached the bottom of the stairs a number of Bringers came out of the shadows in the cellar behind them. "Get that door open," ordered Buffy indicating the door at the top of the stairs. "I'll hold them off."

Kennedy ran up the stairs and, not even bothering to find out if the door was locked, kicked it hard, knocking it open. Buffy and Xander watched the Bringers gathering below but they had no need to fight. The Bringers remained well back in the cellar, presumably waiting for reinforcements.

"Come on," yelled Kennedy from the doorway "It's open."

Buffy and Xander followed Kennedy through the door where all three stopped to orient themselves. They were in a hallway lit only by artificial lighting with no sunshine coming in from outside, something very convenient for the group of vampires gathering at the far end.

"Hold them off," ordered Buffy. "I'll guard your back from the Bringers." With that Buffy turned back to the stairwell and went back through the doorway.

'I'll guard your back' thought Xander. What the hell? That's not like Buffy. Xander was used to Buffy leading from the front and he had expected to see her charge straight at the vampires. Oh my god he thought. No wonder she was so quick coming back out of that hole.

"It's The First," Xander shouted to Kennedy who was just starting to engage with two vampires further down the corridor. "It's not Buffy, we left Buffy behind back there."

As Xander yelled this he received immediate confirmation as two Bringers burst out of the doorway at the top of the stairs, obviously not having been slowed down at all by 'Buffy'.

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Buffy held tightly to the Battle Scythe and concentrated. She could do this she told herself. She had seen Cordy do it and Cordy didn't even have a magic Scythe. Cordy however seemed to be capable of quite a few odd things these days so Buffy couldn't be sure it would work.

"Tara," called Buffy "Tara, I need you. Can you hear me?"

For nearly a minute Buffy kept this up until she was almost ready to stop and try to think of something else when she saw the now familiar lights of an incoming orb. Tara had heard and there she was. Buffy took no chances and immediately touched Tara to confirm this was not a trick by The First. Thankfully it was the real Tara.

"Buffy," asked Tara. "How did you do that? What's going on?"

"Explanations later," said Buffy. "I'm blocked off down here. Could you take me upstairs? Xander and Kennedy are up there and they need our help."

Tara took Buffy's hand and orbed up into the middle of the wine cellar. It took only a moment to decide which way to go as the unmistakable sounds of fighting came from the other end of the basement. Holding the Scythe ready for serious business Buffy ran off in that direction followed by Tara.

Upstairs in the corridor Kennedy had managed to dust one vampire and was benefiting from the confined space because it meant she only had to face two vampires at a time. 'Only' two vampires at a time she thought. Before she came to Sunnydale she normally only had to deal with one at a time. I didn't know when I was well off.

Behind Kennedy, Xander had managed to hold his own against the Bringers but only just. Like Kennedy, Xander benefited from the narrow corridor preventing any more than one or two Bringers getting near him at once. The trouble was there were probably a lot more Bringers and Vampires waiting their turn whilst Xander and eventually even Kennedy would begin to tire.

Xander now noticed the Bringers in front of him turning back to the doorway to the basement. He downed his immediate opponent with a punch and was about to hit one of the distracted Bringers when it lost its head. It literally lost its head as it was chopped off by a very sharp weapon. Xander jumped back to avoid being hit by the falling head and separate body.

Buffy had arrived, the real Buffy this time and she made short work of the remaining Bringers. Seeing Buffy suddenly appear like this was not just life saving but also a great relief for Xander. All the time he was fighting the Bringers he was feeling guilty about being deceived by The First into leaving Buffy behind and probably trapped.

Taking no time for chat whilst more fighting was needed Buffy went straight past Xander and joined Kennedy in the fight against the vampires. Once again the Scythe proved to be quite devastating, so much so that Kennedy stood back and gave Buffy room to use it to cut through the vampires in front of her. Soon the corridor was clear of enemies, the last two vampires deciding to run rather than commit suicide by staying to fight.

"Boy it's good to see you again," said Xander. "The real you this time. The First was pretending to be you. We didn't mean to leave you behind."

"You got it then," said Kennedy. "Looks like it's worth having."

"You have no idea," said Buffy. "But we'd better get out of here now before The First comes up with anything else."

"Would anybody like a lift?" asked Tara who had now arrived on the scene. "Or does anybody need healing before we go?"

Both Kennedy and Xander had minor wounds but nothing that wouldn't wait until they got home. Everybody took hold of Tara and she orbed them all away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Connor put the cellphone away and spoke to Gunn in the driver's seat alongside. "That was Wesley," he said. "Angel and the gang have moved to Sunnydale. Some friends of Tara's took them the quick way. They think this circus is headed towards the local high school. Wes says it's on a Hellmouth whatever that is."

"Well it don't sound good," replied Gunn.

"Angel and Wes will meet us there," said Connor. "Watch out for them when we get there."

They were approaching the outskirts of Sunnydale having followed Jasmine and her Wolfram and Hart army all the way from LA. For several miles now the road leading away from Sunnydale had been very busy. This wasn't just regular traffic but seemed to be a full scale exodus. Whole families were the norm together with whatever could be crammed into a car or a truck. There were even some people trekking on foot out of town laden with bags and cases.

"Do you think they know something we don't?" asked Connor. The outgoing traffic contrasted strongly with the traffic going into Sunnydale which consisted of Jasmine and her Wolfram and Hart people, Gunn and Connor following and as far as they could tell nobody else.

Gunn drove around a bend and had to brake sharply to a halt in order to avoid a collision. Two cars on the other side of the road had collided causing the front one to slew across the road partly blocking it. What were presumably the two angry drivers were out of their cars and had just started to fight. Further annoyed drivers were getting out of their cars and were walking forward yelling because of the hold up to the traffic. The situation had all the makings of a full scale riot.

Gunn would have kept going but he didn't have that option so he got out of his car and got into the driver's seat of the now empty car that was blocking his way. Whichever driver owned that particular car either didn't notice what Gunn was doing or didn't care as he carried on fighting.

Gunn drove the car back onto its own side of the road and up the road a few yards where there was room to park. As he walked back he could see fully a dozen men were now fighting, egged on by a number of women sitting in or standing by the stationary vehicles. From the words being exchanged by the onlookers, women as well as men, others would soon be joining in.

Gunn got back into his own car and started up the engine. He leant on the horn and then leaned out of his window and yelled in a loud voice. "Watch out, the cops." Most of the men stopped fighting and some turned back to their cars. Gunn drove off.

"Very slick," said Connor. "You surprised me. I didn't think you'd be able to get past without decking somebody."

"You wanna keep out of something like that if you can," said Gunn. "Don't matter how many you knock down there's always somebody else looking for you and you can't beat them all. We might have been there for hours. Those guys are crazy."

"Whatever's driving them out of town is probably what's driving them crazy," said Connor.

"So why aren't we affected?" asked Gunn.

"We're the ones following a gang of demons towards a Hellmouth," said Connor. "Do you think that makes us sane?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's...that's amazing," said Faith who opened her eyes and then handed the Scythe onto Kennedy.

Kennedy, taking hold of the Scythe took a deep breath, closed her eyes briefly and nodded. "Oh yeah," she said handing the Scythe back to Buffy. "Can we have one each?"

"Yeah," added Faith. "That's a slayer weapon. There are three slayers now. If we all had one of those we'd take a lot of stopping."

After her return to the house Buffy found that everybody had returned from San Francisco. Also present were Faith and Gwen back from LA. After being told of developments elsewhere Buffy had taken the others slayers aside to show them the Scythe.

Up to now Buffy had not told anybody else about her grandmother and the guardians. Now she made a decision to tell the other slayers. She told them of what her grandmother had said to her and Dawn.

"Can we contact your grandma?" asked Kennedy "See if she's got any more of these or if she can get hold of them."

"I don't think there are any more," said Buffy. "Up until recently there was only one slayer so only one Scythe. Anyway I'm not getting my grandmother involved in this again."

"There's another way," pointed out Faith. "It's pretty obvious somebody used magic in making that. Well we've got a few pretty strong magic users on our side at the moment. Couldn't they copy that for us, or perhaps do something similar to some of our other weapons?"

Faith's comment jogged a memory for Buffy. She had wondered whether there was any way to activate the potentials without waiting for another slayer to die. The magic users were now back and they were faced with the mother and father of all battles to close or destroy the Hellmouth. It would make their side so much stronger if all the potentials became slayers and they all had their own Scythe or something just as good.

Buffy explained her thoughts to Faith and Kennedy. "That's it," said Faith. "I bet that's why The First's been killing off the potentials. He knows we'll be able to make them all into slayers. The more he kills off before the big battle starts the better chance he's got."

"I'll get Willow, Tara and Giles onto it," said Buffy. "The Halliwell sisters might be able to help as well."

"Onto what?" asked Willow coming into the room with Tara. Buffy explained what the three slayers had been talking about and what she wanted Willow and the other magic users to do.

"OK," said Willow. "Your wish is our command. We'll get on it as soon as we've finished doing the anti-Jasmine protection amulets for everybody."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Connor and Gunn followed Wesley into the stake out room on the third floor of a building over the road from Sunnydale High. Angel was already in the room as was another man who he introduced as Robin Wood the High School Principal.

"Wood here's been working with Buffy for a while," said Angel. "He's got experience of fighting vampires and demons."

"His mother was a slayer," said Wesley.

"So there are black slayers as well," said Gunn. "Nice to know. So does that make you stronger than the average bear?"

"Nope," said Wood. "No slayer powers. It doesn't work like that."

Connor had walked over to the window and looked at the school. By now all of Jasmine's people had left their vehicles and gone into the school. He looked closely. Yes, there were definitely guards on the front door and others watching from various windows.

Gunn walked over and joined Connor and Angel. "I hope you ain't got any students still inside," he said to Wood.

"We shut the place down three days ago," replied Wood. "By then most students and teachers had stopped coming anyway. They've probably all left town by now."

"So what's the plan," Gunn asked Angel. "I assume we're going in sometime."

"Maybe," said Angel. "But first we're going to Buffy's place to talk to everybody there."

"You want me to carry on watching the school?" asked Connor.

"You've been on the road all day," replied Angel. "You can come with us and get something to eat. Faith's bringing a team over in about an hour to take over surveillance. We'll leave then."

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"No, no, no, no, no," said Giles. "You can't do that. If you did you'd be responsible for so much evil."

"Exactly," said Wesley. "Who knows how many would be affected and none of them would be ready."

"But we need to do something like this. We're gonna need more slayers or nobody will survive," said Willow.

"I bet it's just what The First is afraid we'll do," said Faith.

"Do something like this yes," said Giles. "By all means activate the potentials that are here, if they agree to it. They know what they're in for. But you can't just activate all potentials everywhere. That would be a disaster."

"There are many reasons why a watcher always contacts a newly activated slayer," said Wesley. "Even if she's not previously been under training as a potential. One of the most important is the well being of the slayer herself."

"Somebody who became a slayer without anybody to explain what was going on could cause a great deal of damage to herself and others," said Giles.

"As well as becoming a target for dark forces," said Wesley. "Until now we always thought the Watchers Council were the only ones able to detect potential slayers. The First Evil has shown us that's no longer true but activated slayers have always been more visible."

"So what are you saying?" asked Buffy. "They might be attacked or recruited by the bad guys? We might be creating a lot of dark slayers?"

"Worse," said Giles. "The witches here should know how ordinary people can react if they feel threatened by those with special powers and abilities. Even without a single dark slayer you could make these new slayers and yourselves the targets of a modern witch hunt. None of these other new slayers would know of the need to keep their new powers a secret. Some of them would become very visible very quickly."

"Could you change the spell Will?" asked Buffy. "Make it apply only to the potentials that are here? We'll be just as strong when we attack the Hellmouth."

"The trouble is the Scythe seems to be linked to all slayers and all potentials," said Willow. "We might be able to do it but it'll have to be without the Scythe so it'll probably be only temporary. I'll get on it."


	25. Into Battle

**Chapter Twenty Five: Into Battle**

The plans had been agreed, the teams organised and the assignments given. By general consent Buffy was accepted as overall general in chief. Also by general consent the aim was to shut the Hellmouth and shut it for good. This meant dealing not only with The First and whatever Bringers, demons, vampires and uber-vampires it could muster but with Jasmine and her followers including the Wolfram and Hart people. Nobody knew whether they would also be up against Glory and her minions.

Surveillance of the High School over the previous two days confirmed that it had been converted into a fortress. There were guards on all entrances, humans by day or at least those who looked human and others at night. Quite clearly the plan of the enemy was to protect the Hellmouth until it became time to use it to pull in the meteor. Once the meteor had devastated life on Earth, particularly human life and civilisation, the vampires and demons would emerge to take over the ravaged planet.

Sunnydale now seemed to be deserted both by humans and by vampires and demons with the exception of the Scooby Gang and its allies on the one side and the forces defending the Hellmouth on the other. This exodus appeared to have gone completely unnoticed by all the news media, including local media in the surrounding towns. There was not even any chat about it on the web. This created a great deal of puzzlement amongst the Scooby Gang and its allies.

"If The First's got enough influence to control the news it must be a lot stronger than we thought," suggested Xander.

"I didn't think anything could control the web to that extent," said Fred.

"But if it's that powerful why hasn't it won already?" asked Paige.

It was Leo who explained what was going on. He advised that the coming fight between the Forces of Light, represented by Buffy, Angel, The Charmed Ones and their friends and allies, and the Forces of Darkness represented by The First and it's allies had been designated a 'Contest of Champions'. This was a very rare event and had only happened on a few occasions in the past. What it meant was that the Powers of Light and the Powers of Darkness had agreed to isolate the battleground from the rest of the world.

"The rest of the world?" queried Willow. "What about the Hellmouth? Can The First get help from the Hellmouth or does it have to stick with what it has here already?"

"I'm afraid the agreement only affects this world," said Leo. "We can't rule out the Hellmouth being used to bring in more demons. It's up to us to stop that."

"You said this had happened before," said Buffy. "What happened on the other occasions?"

"Oh come on," said Cordelia. "Even I can work that out. We're here aren't we? That means the Forces of Light won the previous fights."

"Um," said Leo. "It's not as simple as that. The Powers of Light and Darkness work on a much longer time scale than we can imagine. There have been occasions in the past where the Forces of Light have been defeated and the Forces of Darkness have dominated the world."

"The old ones," said Wesley.

"Yes" said Leo. "That was one such time. We have to make sure something similar doesn't happen again."

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The attack was set to begin at dawn. Since the Forces of Light were to be the attackers it was agreed that they might as well fight in daylight, as far as possible. Before the attack however a great deal of preparation was necessary.

Willow, Tara and the other magic users had not been able to duplicate the Battle Scythe but they had 'improved' the weapons that everybody would be using. They had made the weapons stronger, sharper and less likely to break or be damaged. In addition the Whitelighters had blessed all the weapons.

The hope was that one touch or one nick on a demon or vampire, of whatever sort, would prove fatal in the same way that holy water destroyed vampires. Even if it didn't quite work like that it was hoped that there would be some benefit from what was done.

The only exceptions were the sword and knives that Angel would be carrying because a quick check confirmed that he could not lay hands on the enhanced and blessed weapons. Angel himself pointed out that this was all to the good because it meant that vampires and demons would not be able to pick up and use any weapons dropped by the Forces of Light in the course of the battle.

Willow had been able to devise a spell to temporarily endow the potentials with the power of a slayer. "Why not everybody else as well then?" asked Dawn. "Why not make everybody here a slayer, at least for this battle?"

"Because it wouldn't work," said Giles. "Potential slayers aren't just ordinary people. They're potential slayers because they have the ability to hold the slayer power. Try to put that sort of power into somebody else and you'd probably end up killing them."

The other main preparation was magical. The information obtained from Lilah and surveillance had shown that the Wolfram and Hart teams had modern weapons deployed to protect the school. It wouldn't matter what powers the attackers possessed if they were all mown down by machine guns and rockets before they even reached the school.

Dealing with the modern weapons of the defenders was the task assigned to the Charmed Ones. They would cast a spell which would disable all modern weapons in the area of the school. Basically they would aim to maintain an area where such weapons simply did not work. An area where explosions would not explode, where guns would not fire, chemicals would not react and where only purely mechanical weapons like swords, knives and bows would be effective.

The spell would be cast by the four Charmed Ones immediately before the attack. It was felt likely that the Forces of Darkness would have their own mages who would immediately work to nullify the spell so the Charmed Ones would remain out of the battle and look to keep their spell going.

To protect the Charmed Ones from attack whilst they were spell-casting two of the newly charged up potentials, Chao-An and Colleen were to stay out of the attack. Buffy had suggested that Dawn be one of these stay behinds but Dawn had successfully scotched that by pointing out that she was one of the few people who knew her way around the new school and she would therefore be needed inside.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy put her cellphone in her pocket and turned to Willow. "They've done it," she said. "We can go now."

From her position within the building closest to the front of the school Willow raised her hands and began chanting. As she did so she tried hard to clear her mind of concern for Tara. Tara had her own job to do and she'd be all right. Willow continued her chant and reached a quick climax.

A sudden irresistible wind blew up and struck the front of the school. All the windows shattered and blew in as did the main front double doors. With any luck the defenders behind those windows and doors would be at the very least temporarily disabled.

As soon as the doors sprang open Buffy led the charge forward. Right behind her were Rona and her team of slayers. Temporary slayers maybe but for the time being, apart from their relative inexperience, fully as strong and dangerous as any slayer had ever been. Holding their enhanced weapons they followed Buffy inside. Trying to keep up with the slayers were Giles, Xander, Anya and Amy.

Inside the front entrance to the school all was chaos. Chaos that was for the defenders with rubble and bodies strewn around but all according to the plans of the attackers. Buffy halted and Xander and Giles came up on either side of her. Meanwhile Rona and her team worked on the fallen defenders to ensure that they stayed fallen and quickly struck down those few who had been able to struggle to their feet or showed any sign of being able to recover.

"Well that was easy," said Amy who so far hadn't had to do anything.

"Make the most of it," replied Anya. "There was never gonna be much fighting up here in the daylight. It's down below that we'll really have to fight."

At that moment a strong earthquake struck. The whole building shook and lumps of plaster fell from the ceiling and walls. The quake however subsided and for the moment there was no serious structural collapse.

"Yeah!" said Xander punching his fist in the air. "That's one for modern earthquake proof building codes and zero for the bad guys."

Unbeknownst to Xander that wasn't the whole story.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cordelia, Angel, Faith and Tara stood together at a window overlooking the front of the school. Together they watched the launch of the attack. As Buffy and her team ran forward Cordelia, Angel and Faith took hold of Tara's hands and arms. "Let's go!" said Faith.

An instant later they materialised on the second floor of the school in one of the classrooms overlooking the front entrance. Beside them Dawn and the rest of Angel investigations appeared courtesy of Leo and Jenny. Having helped with transport Tara and Leo disappeared to other duties. Tara to join Willow and be available to help with casualties downstairs and Leo to rejoin his wife and her sisters. Jenny remained in case of casualties amongst the attackers upstairs.

The classroom had been devastated by Willow's gale. All the bodies, dead and injured, seemed to be human. They were presumably Wolfram and Hart people. From the items strewn around they were in the nature of a SWAT team with plenty of weapons and ammunition.

As had been agreed beforehand no time was wasted on debate about what to do about the enemy. The team quickly disposed of those who showed signs of reviving. As this task was being completed the building was shaken by a strong seismic shock.

"Keep going!" said Angel as he saw the others hesitate. There'll be worse than this before we're finished."

As the shaking stopped Angel, Faith and the others, directed by their guide Dawn set about their assigned task which was to clear the upper floors of the school and prevent the enemies there from attacking Buffy and the others downstairs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Across the road from the school Willow watched the attack go in with Kennedy and Wood. Tara materialised by her side and gave Willow a quick smile. Willow smiled back. So far so good she thought, all according to plan.

Willow took hold of Tara's hand determined that they would remain as close together as possible through the coming fight. As it happened it was just as well that they were linked because at that moment the ground shook.

For those without magical senses the earthquake might have been a co-incidence but both Willow and Tara knew it was not. It was the first counter attack by the Forces of Darkness. They would be quite happy to collapse the whole building and destroy all the attackers inside even if it meant killing any of their own people who were still alive at the same time. It might have worked had Willow not acted immediately.

"Still!" commanded Willow. At the same time she and Tara knelt down and placed their free hands flat on the ground. The earth movement and the noise associated with it gradually subsided. No major damage and hopefully no casualties but it had been a close run thing. Coming so soon after her other spell Willow was sure she would not have had the power to quell the earthquake without Tara's support.

"I'd better see if anybody's hurt," said Tara who orbed inside. Since Willow had no intention of letting go of Tara's hand she went with her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anya and Amy stood in front of the door to the basement and began their spell. As far as anybody could tell all resistance had stopped in the rest of the school. As she waited for the spell to be completed Buffy talked on her cellphone to the other groups. Everybody was deployed and ready.

Even without specific warning from Leo and the Halliwell sisters the example of Anyanka had shown Buffy and the Scooby Gang that it wasn't just the good guys who could teleport. A sudden attack from an area previously cleared was therefore expected and prepared for.

Angel, Faith and their team remained upstairs and continued to check out the rooms up there. Rona and her team were on guard downstairs and ready to follow Buffy into the basement. One change to the original plan was that Kennedy with Wood and Vi's team of enhanced potentials were now staying outside the school. They remained on guard in case of an attack from elsewhere but clear of the school as a reserve in case it was brought down on the heads of those inside.

The other change to previous plans was that Willow and Tara were now on guard to counter another earthquake spell. This left Amy to lead the next magical attack which is why it was she, with Anya's help, who was carrying out the next spell.

At last the spell was complete. The spell concentrated the sunshine entering the school windows and doors and focused it on the door to the basement. Buffy now moved forward and delivered a savage kick to the door. The door collapsed inwards and Buffy, in a blaze of light entered the basement closely followed by the others.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Outside the school the second counter attack by the Forces of Darkness was getting underway. Now that there was no longer any need to husband resources The First had called out all of its remaining Bringers. They began pouring out of the buildings surrounding the school and began to head towards the school entrance. Either the town had not been as empty as had been assumed or the Bringers had been moved close to the school from elsewhere.

Seeing what was happening Kennedy called Vi and her team into a defensive block at the school entrance. While she had the chance she reported developments on her cellphone to the other groups.

Individually the Bringers were not very formidable but they had the advantage of numbers. They did not attack at once however but gathered in a mass some fifty yards away from the slayers, allowing their numbers to continue to build up behind them as more and more Bringers arrived.

Kennedy began considering her tactics. She quickly rejected attacking herself. Running into the mass of Bringers would result in many casualties amongst the Bringers but would almost certainly isolate the slayers from one another in the much larger mass of Bringers. This would prove fatal for at least some of the slayers. Sticking together was the only way they were going to get through this.

Suddenly arrows began to fly from the upper windows of the school. Some members of Angel's team were joining the fight by shooting into the Bringers. The casualties that this caused created a stir amongst the Bringers and now they began to move forward.

As the Bringers closed the gap between them and the group of slayers a bright light appeared in front of them causing them to stop. The brightness slowly diminished to reveal three women standing between them and the slayers: Jenny, Faith and Cordelia.

Whether or not the Bringers were surprised by the sudden appearance of the three women they gave no sign as they started forward in silence once more. Kennedy, Vi and the rest of their group started forward to join the three newcomers but stopped as glowing began once again.

The first glow had been produced by Jenny's orb. The new glow however was produced by Cordelia. Unlike previous occasions when Cordelia had shown her power, this time she seemed to be in control of what she was doing. After discussion with Tara and the other witches Cordelia now had a magic wand.

Cordelia's wand was in fact merely an ordinary piece of polished wood about a foot long which Xander had carved for her. Cordelia now used it in the way she had practiced to focus her witch power. The glowing was coming from the end of the wand and Cordelia now aimed this at the advancing Bringers.

Jenny and Faith stepped away from Cordelia and moved back to join Kennedy, Vi and the others. Whilst Jenny was unarmed Faith was carrying the Troll Hammer.

"What's she doing?" asked Vi directing her question to Faith.

"Magic," said Kennedy who was remembering the last time she had seen Cordelia use magic and what had happened to Harmony.

The glowing from Cordelia's wand had now reached the advancing Bringers and continued to brighten. The leading Bringers tried to move back away from it but were unable to do so because of the press of bodies behind them.

Now Cordelia's glow engulfed all the Bringers and continued to brighten until not only the Bringers but Cordelia as well could no longer be seen by Jenny and the slayers who found themselves moving backwards and having to shade their eyes.

After what seemed to those watching a long time but in reality was no more than about twenty seconds the glow began to dim until Cordelia could be seen once again. She was now sat on the ground exhausted. Jenny and Faith, quickly followed by the others started forward.

The Bringers were now milling around having lost their purpose. They were no longer silent but were talking and asking questions. In fact they were no longer Bringers but were once more completely human.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy reached the bottom of the stairs into the basement and stopped. The basement was empty. Well empty apart from Buffy, the members of the Scooby Gang, Rona and her team and a young beautiful African American woman who walked forward towards them.

"You must be Jasmine," said Buffy. "You have no power over us. You can leave through the Hellmouth before we shut it down or we'll shut you down at the same time."

"What a miserable life you must lead," said Jasmine. "All this fighting, all this hatred."

"I don't need..." began Buffy.

"Where are we?" asked Giles. "This isn't the school basement."

Buffy looked around and discovered that they were no longer in the basement but instead were in a large dark cavern. Only the central area in which they were all standing seemed to be lit by lights hanging above.

"Enjoy yourselves," said Jasmine. "You'll all be perfectly safe here when the meteor hits." With that Jasmine disappeared.

Buffy turned to Willow and Tara. "Where are we, and can you get us back to the school?"

"I've been trying to orb away," said Tara. "But something's blocking me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With the departure of Faith, Cordelia and Jenny and the ending of the threat of the Bringers outside, the group clearing the upper floors divided into three teams to patrol and make sure they stayed clear. Connor and Gunn were working together checking the west wing of the building, Wesley and Fred were working together checking out the east wing.

Angel stayed with Dawn in the central area. He accepted that Dawn now had slayer strength and power but he had no intention of allowing anything to happen to Buffy's little sister so he kept close to her, even though for the time being she had the speed and strength of a slayer.

In the west wing Gunn and Connor had found nothing, or to be more accurate nobody. However as Connor started to follow Gunn out of the final classroom at the end of the west corridor of the second floor he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye.

On guard and holding his enhanced sword in his hand Connor turned back and saw a young blond haired woman standing at the back of the room. Gunn, having noticed that Connor was no longer following him came back into the room.

"Darla," said Gunn. "Oh boy, just what we need."

Connor turned to Gunn. "This is Darla? This is my mother?" he asked.

"Oh yes," said Darla walking forward. "I'm your ever loving mother. How is my little boy? Brushed your teeth this morning? Washed behind your ears?"

"What do you want Darla?" asked Gunn stepping forward and holding up his axe. "There's no place for you here."

"No place for a vampire with a soul?" said Darla. "And I thought you were broad minded."

"You have a soul" said Connor. "How come?"

"Well since you ask..." began Darla."Watch out!" she cried her eyes going wide.

Connor and Gunn turned to deal with whatever had come into the room behind them to find nothing and nobody there. Before they could turn back Darla hit Gunn, knocking him out.

"You'd be surprised how often that works," said Darla to her son as she picked up Gunn's axe. She just as quickly dropped it again as it caused a burning sensation in her hand and up her arm.

Connor found himself unable to make a decision. This was his mother. The one person in the world who he had wanted to meet. He knew she was a monster, he had been told often enough by Holtz. However Connor was not stupid. He had learned that Holtz's point of view was not the whole truth. He couldn't let Darla kill Gunn but at the same time he couldn't bring himself to fight her.

"Pick him up and come with me!" ordered Darla taking Connor completely by surprise.

"Pick him up?" asked Connor puzzled.

"We can't leave him here," said Darla. "He's your friend so I don't suppose you want something to come along and kill him while he's unconscious do you? Anyway you can't expect your poor old mother to carry him." The last was obvious sarcasm as Darla could and had in the past passed for much the same age as Connor himself was now and was probably a great deal stronger than him.

"You do want to close down the Hellmouth?" asked Darla. Connor nodded slowly. "Then come with me!" she added and walked away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They all sort of vanished," said Mary the remaining member of Rona's team in the school. She had been gathering up fired crossbow bolts and had been slow to follow the rest into the basement. She had been just in time to see Buffy and the rest disappear from near the bottom of the basement steps and had rushed outside where she found Faith, Kennedy and the others.

By now Jenny had orbed away with Cordelia. Cordelia needed time to rest so Jenny had taken her to the house where the Charmed Ones, Leo and their guards were based.

"The plan still goes ahead," said Faith. "Buffy will be back. Buffy always comes back but in the meantime we've got to stop anything coming out of the Hellmouth."

"What to stop the same thing happening to us if we go into the basement?" asked Vi.

"We don't have any magic users," said Kennedy. "They're all with Buffy."

"For the moment we don't go into the basement," said Faith. "Kennedy, you stay out here with three of the girls. I'll take everybody else inside and we'll stop anything coming up out of there."

Faith had a sudden ominous thought and took hold of Mary's arm. It was a real arm, thus proving that Mary was really Mary. "Sorry" she said. "Just checking." This prompted a round of touching from the assembled group who all knew exactly what Faith had been thinking about.

Faith pulled out her cellphone and continued. "I'll tell the sisters and Angel what's happening. If Buffy and the rest don't come back soon I'll see what the sisters can do to close the Hellmouth."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Angel and Dawn met with Wesley and Fred. While waiting for Gunn and Connor Angel filled everybody in with the information that Faith had supplied. Everybody decided to join Faith's team once Gunn and Connor returned. However the minutes dragged by without Gunn and Connor returning.

"You guys go downstairs," said Angel. "I'll find them and bring them along."

"We all stick together," said Wesley. "We're just as worried about Gunn and Connor as you are." I am not going to be to blame for anything happening to Connor this time thought Wesley.

Dawn really wanted to find out what had happened to Buffy and the others but she said nothing as Fred chorused her agreement with Wesley. I am the only slayer with the group she thought so I'd better stick with them.

"OK then," said Angel. "Let's move."

Angel led the way into the west wing and at once picked up Gunn and Connor's scent trail. A few minutes later he led the group into the classroom where Darla had met her son. At once Angel was aware of a very familiar scent.

"Darla!" said Angel.

"Darla?" said Dawn. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," replied Angel. "Darla was here, and not long ago."

"Is this the only place she's been?" asked Fred, "because you didn't mention noticing anything before you came into this room."

"She hasn't been in the corridor outside," said Angel.

"The doorway at the back of the room," suggested Fred prompting the group to head in that direction.

"The stairs there lead down to the fire exit at the side of the building," said Dawn.

"And down into the basement?" asked Wesley.

"Well no," said Dawn. "You'd have to go back round to the other corridor where all the slayers are. That's the only entrance to the basement."

Angel led the way down the back stairs. He was concerned for his son but was also wondering how to respond to Darla. Willow had told him about the soul spell she had done on Darla and Drusilla. One thing he did decide was that he would dust Darla (again) if she had done anything to Connor.

At the bottom of the stairs there were just three ways to go: Into one of the classrooms, back towards the main entrance with its guard of enhanced potentials or out the emergency exit.

Since the sun was shining outside clearly Darla had not gone that way and the lack of news and noise from the main entrance seemed to rule that out as well. Angel was just about to suggest a search of the classrooms when Fred opened the nearby janitor's cupboard. This proved to have a ladder leading down into the basement through a hole broken in the floor.


	26. Loyalties

**Chapter Twenty Six: Loyalties**

Jasmine reappeared in the basement next to the re-established seal where Buffy or rather The First in the form of Buffy was waiting for her.

"Did you kill them all?" asked Buffy/The First.

Jasmine smiled. "That's my business," she said. "Now what do you..."

Jasmine was interrupted by clapping from a single pair of hands. The noise was coming from Glory who now walked slowly forward towards the other two.

"Brilliant, just brilliant!" said Glory. "You do realise what you've just done makes matters worse don't you? You might just have blocked off my only chance to go home."

"Then you'd better join the fight instead of sitting around on your butt," said Jasmine. "Your only friends are right here. It's about time you had the sense to understand that."

"You just won't listen will you?" said Glory. "No wonder you have to keep running away from world after world. With a talent for making enemies like yours you'll never be more than a small nuisance to others more powerful than you."

"This from someone who couldn't even beat a vampire slayer," said Jasmine. "Ooh, you'd better get out of here. I understand there's at least one more slayer around and she might be looking for you."

"Why don't you sort out your differences later after we've dealt with the immediate problems," suggested Buffy/The First.

"I'm looking at my immediate problem," said Glory staring at Jasmine. "In fact I'm just about to deal with it."

By now Glory and Jasmine were glaring at each other. Buffy/The First, incorporeal as she was now stepped between them.

"That's enough," she ordered. "The seal is nearly ready to fully open and when it does..."

"You know you're not making any friends here by looking like that," interrupted Glory who glared at Buffy/The First.

"She's not your friend anyway," said Drusilla who now joined the other three. "Either of you. You do realise that after the meteor hits and most humans are dead there'll be enough vampires and demons coming out of the Hellmouth to make this, this thing corporeal. Once that happens it'll be in charge and you two will have to do as you're told."

The First now morphed into a copy of Drusilla. "Well, well, it seems the slayer's got a new friend." she said. "What a difference a soul makes. Well pretty soon we won't have to worry about souls any more."

"Is that what you guys want?" continued the real and apparently fully sane Drusilla. "The best you can hope for is to be minions of this guy. Do you remember when you used to be minions to somebody stronger? I bet that was great fun."

Glory already had grave doubts that the interests of The First and her interests were the same. Drusilla had now achieved her aim of placing the same doubts in the mind of Jasmine. Although both Glory and Jasmine claimed the status of Hellgods neither had started out as such powerful beings. Neither of them intended to return to a lesser status at somebody else's beck and call.

Glory looked at Drusilla. "You're sure about this?" she asked.

"You know I have The Sight," said Drusilla. "And you're both powerful enough to know the truth when you hear it. Once there are more demons in the world than humans The First gets its wish and becomes corporeal. That'll be a few minutes after the meteor hits."

Glory glanced at Jasmine and Drusilla/The First and then walked over to the seal. She held her hand over the seal and watched as one of the sections opened.

"What are you doing?" asked Drusilla/The First. "You're needed upstairs, not down there. What she says is true but it's not the whole truth. We can come to a deal about what happens after the humans are dealt with."

Glory giggled and shook her head. "Trust me, I'm the First Evil," she mocked. "Oh yeah, like I'm gonna fall for that."

Glory now entered the Hellmouth. Jasmine watched her go and then disappeared herself. Drusilla/The First glared at the real Drusilla and then also disappeared.

Darla now walked out of the shadows to join Drusilla followed by Connor supporting a still groggy Gunn.

"You heard all that?" Darla asked her son. Connor nodded. "You'd better fetch your friends down here. There isn't much time. They need to enter the Hellmouth, shut it from the other side and stop anything opening it again until this meteor is past."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Connor. "Why are you both doing this? Is it the souls?"

"A vampire is a thing," said Drusilla. "A soulless thing. I'm still a vampire but now I know what I am. I now have a choice and I choose not to be a thing any longer."

As she finished speaking Drusilla turned away and picked up two swords one of which she gave to Darla. She started walking towards the seal.

Darla started to follow Drusilla but as she did she turned back briefly towards her still confused son. "Come on, hurry up," she said. "For once in your life do as your mother tells you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Prue put the phone down after talking to Faith. Quickly she told her sisters and the others what had happened.

Both Leo and Jenny tried to get a read on where Tara had disappeared to but without success. "I'd better join Faith and her people since Tara's not around at the moment," said Jenny. I bet I have to save Rupert again before this is all over she thought as she orbed away.

"Do you think we should go over there too?" asked Colleen. "They might need us now the others have disappeared."

"Looks like we'd better all be ready to join them over in the school," said Piper. "We can take all this stuff with us and keep the spell going over there."

"If the Hellmouth doesn't interfere with it." said Paige. "We don't want to fall into whatever trap got Buffy and the others."

"Pheebs," asked Prue. "Do you think you could check your mystic e-mail? Try to find out what our best course of action is?"

"You can do that?" asked Cordelia. "You don't have to wait for it to just hit?"

"Sometimes I can," said Phoebe looking around and thinking. "I usually need to hold onto something with a connection to whatever it is I'm trying to find out about."

"Take my hand," said Cordelia holding out her hand. "Perhaps if we work together we can really find out what's going on."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A search of the cavern by the slayers had shown no exits. Buffy and her companions seemed to have been transported to an underground cavern without any exit or entry. Short of a major effort to dig their way out through solid rock it seemed that magic was their only way of returning to the fight.

Willow, Tara, Giles, Amy and Anya had finished their discussions and were now preparing for a major magical effort. The plan was to enclose everybody within a magic circle and then transport everybody all together back to the basement of the school.

As well as the magic users there were The Slayer, the Battle Scythe, the enhanced potentials and their weapons plus the magical amulets worn by everybody. The plan was intended as a way of harnessing all of the magical power available at the same time and using it to break free of their present location. All preparations were interrupted however by the return of Jasmine who suddenly reappeared in the cavern.

Buffy strode towards Jasmine holding her scythe ready for use. "Nice to see you again," she said. "Now if you'll just hold still I'll remove that unsightly lump from your shoulders."

"If you kill me, not that you could, you'll never get out of here," said Jasmine causing Buffy to stop short.

"You don't know that," said Willow coming to stand beside Buffy. "We've got more magical power than you and it's white magic not black."

"Yes, I expect you have," said Jasmine. "Magic was never one of my strong suits. I couldn't do these teleportations without the Hellmouth nearby. But you need more than power. You need to know where you are. Even if you could get round that you don't have the time. Everything's coming to a head back at the Hellmouth. If you agree to what I want I can take you straight there."

"Is this really Jasmine or is it our Firsty friend playing games?" asked Xander.

"And does it make any difference anyway?" asked Anya.

In answer to this Jasmine crouched down and picked up a stone which she tossed at Xander. It bounced off him. "I believe that's the usual way of proving the point," said Jasmine.

"So you want us to believe that you've changed sides," said Buffy. "Why should we believe you?"

"You haven't heard what I want yet," said Jasmine. "You'll see that I'm still on the same side, mine."

"So what exactly do you want?" asked Giles.

"We're not gonna let you take over the world or carry on killing people." said Buffy.

Jasmine smiled. "I don't want the world anymore," she said. "Oh no, I can do much better than that."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

While Angel, Dawn and Fred went down the ladder into the basement after Darla, Connor and Gunn, Wesley went along the corridor to the other side of the building to see Faith and her team and to inform her of what had happened.

Wesley had volunteered to go. He had had second thoughts about staying with Angel to search for Connor. Knowing that Giles was no longer about he thought it more important that Faith have the advice of a watcher, or at least an ex-watcher, to help her as it seemed she was now the acting leader.

As Wesley was telling Faith, Jenny and the others about Connor, Gunn and Darla they were interrupted by the arrival of the Halliwells and Cordelia who had brought Chao-An and Colleen with them and also collected Kennedy and her group from the entrance on their way into the school.

Cordelia and Phoebe explained to the assembled group what they had been able to find out by the prompting of their vision talents.

"Inside the Hellmouth?" queried Faith. "You're sure?"

"It's the only way," replied Cordelia. "We have to shut the Hellmouth from the inside otherwise it can still be used to draw in the meteor."

"And we have to guard it from the other side against anything that comes at us trying to open it up again and get out," said Phoebe.

"This sounds awfully like the 'Hordes of Hell' prophecy," said Wesley.

"Oh no!" said Cordelia. "Not another prophecy. That's all we need."

"Won't knowing the prophecy help us know what's gonna happen?" asked Kennedy.

"Huh, all prophecies ever do is tell you you're doomed unless you kill yourself or marry your mother or something," said Cordelia. "And if you do it you then find out it meant something completely different all along," she added glaring at Wesley.

"Somebody's coming upstairs," called Isabella who was on watch at the basement door. Everybody immediately readied themselves for combat but relaxed again when they saw it was Connor and Gunn.

"What happened?" asked Wesley, taking hold of Connor's arm to make sure it was really him. "What's Darla up to?"

Connor gave a quick account of what had happened both upstairs and in the basement. Gunn said nothing. He had now recovered from being knocked out but was as interested as everybody else to find out what had happened.

"So these vampires want us to follow them into the Hellmouth," said Kennedy. "Sounds like a trap."

"Except that's what Phoebe and Cordy also want us to do," said Prue.

"So does the prophecy," said Wesley.

Faith led the way down into the basement but she wasn't the first there. Angel, Dawn and Fred had already arrived by using Darla's back door. As everybody followed Faith down the stairs Angel was glad to see Connor amongst those following the slayer. He went over to Connor and Gunn to find out what had happened to them.

"Any more news about Buffy?" Dawn asked Faith.

Faith shook her head. "Nope," she said. "But don't worry, she'll be OK. She's got Willow, Tara, Giles and all the rest with her. No way will they miss the big fight."

As if on cue Buffy, Willow, Tara, Giles and all the rest appeared back in the basement. As if this was not a big enough surprise they were accompanied by Jasmine. Before those who were able to recognise Jasmine were able to do any more than direct puzzled looks in her direction Jasmine left.

"Don't forget," said Jasmine to Buffy as she walked towards the Hellmouth. "You play straight with me and I'll play straight with you." She stared into the seal and caused one of the sections to move aside allowing her to enter the Hellmouth by going down the steps underneath.

Everybody began speaking at once and it was a full minute before the din died down. Buffy had raised her hands for silence. Since everybody wanted to hear what she had to say silence finally descended.

"Look," said Buffy. "We're all in this together so I'm gonna tell everybody what I know then listen to what's been happening here. But we don't have much time so everybody make it quick."

Buffy explained that Jasmine had sent them elsewhere but had then agreed to bring them back. She said that Jasmine claimed not to trust The First and had decided to make her home on the other side of the Hellmouth. In fact she probably intended to take over from The First. Buffy had agreed not to fight Jasmine provided she stayed on the other side.

"Can we trust her?" asked Fred.

"We don't need to trust her," replied Buffy. "Provided she stays away from us we'll stay away from her. I think she's happy for us to fight The First and then take advantage of any damage we do. So long as she's on the other side when we finally close down the entrance we can't lose."

"It's OK," said Tara. "Willow's amulets are still working. We're not under her control."

"She couldn't control a Whitelighter anyway," said Leo.

Connor then explained what had happened with Darla, Drusilla and Glory before handing over to Phoebe who explained about the visions that she and Cordelia had seen.

"So what's that prophecy about Wes?" asked Faith.

Xander groaned. "Yup," he said "Just when things are at their worst you can always rely on a watcher to come up with some awful prophecy."

Wesley explained that the prophecy concerned was a quite famous prophecy called 'The Hordes of Hell'. Giles was also familiar with this prophecy and at his request Tara orbed to his room back at the house to pick up a book which contained details of the prophecy.

Tara was soon back. She handed the book to Giles who went into a corner with Wesley to study it. Willow walked over to Tara but was forestalled by Leo who wanted to speak to her along with Jenny and Paige.

All the Whitelighters together thought Willow who decided it would be polite if she kept her distance. I wonder what that's about. As Willow continued to watch the group it seemed to her that both Paige and Tara were upset by what they were being told by Leo and Jenny.

Willow walked over to the Whitelighters to find out what was going on. "What's up sweetie?" she said putting her arm around Tara as the Whitelighter meeting broke up. Paige went with Leo over to her sisters and Jenny went over to speak to Giles.

"I can't go with you," said Tara. "I can't go into the Hellmouth. It isn't allowed for Whitelighters."

This statement, so unexpected as it was, immediately created great confusion in Willow's mind. On the one hand Willow wanted to stay close to Tara and be with her during the coming battle. On the other Willow couldn't bring herself to be unhappy about the prospect of Tara staying behind in safety.

"Not allowed?" asked Willow. "Who won't allow it? Do you mean the Hellmouth will stop you entering?"

"No," said Tara. "It's not like that. Nobody's gonna stop me, it's just that I've got to stop myself."

Willow still didn't understand and gave Tara a puzzled look.

"Leo and Jenny say that if Whitelighters go in there then demons will be able to go into the Higher Realms," continued Tara. "It'll be like issuing them with an invitation. Even if we won this battle it'd mean we would have lost more than we'd won."

Paige was even more upset that Tara if that were possible. She had pointed out to Leo that she had never been a proper Whitelighter, she just had the powers of a Whitelighter because of her father.

"I've never been measured for wings," she said. "I haven't joined the union or been put on the payroll. Surely I don't count as a Whitelighter?"

"I think you do," said Leo. "I might be wrong but do you want to risk the consequences? I really don't think you should."

"But haven't you been there before?" asked Paige. "I remember a few times when you orbed 'down below.' "

"It's not the same," said Leo. "I only went to the fringes and I wasn't part of a full scale invasion."

"There's no getting round it," said Jenny. "We really do have to stay behind."

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Giles and Wesley were at last ready to explain about the prophecy. As it was pretty clear that The Forces of Light would be going into the Hellmouth for the big fight Buffy had spent the intervening time organising the invasion.

As they would not be going into the Hellmouth Tara and Paige would do the magic to fully open up the seal and to shut it again after everybody else went through. Once on the other side the remaining Charmed Ones would perform a closing spell. That way the Hellmouth would be shut from both sides until the danger had passed. Because of this the Halliwell sisters would be the last through the seal.

According to Phoebe and Cordelia the next 48 hours was the critical time. If they could keep the Hellmouth closed down for that long then it would stay closed and there would no longer be any danger of it being used to pull the meteor down to Earth.

"48 hours," said Fred breaking the renewed silence. "In that case we'd better take a little food and water with us." That prompted the Whitelighters into another round of fetching and carrying to and from the house.

Of course everybody wanted to go through first, or at least first right after Buffy. Buffy therefore found herself insisting that the various groups that were used to working together should stay together as groups.

First through would be Buffy and the Scoobies including Wood. Willow and Amy would be ready to use magic to deal with any immediate magical threat. Faith would follow together with Vi and her team followed by Angel and his group. Next would come Kennedy, Rona and the other team of enhanced potentials and finally the Charmed Ones.

"Gather round everybody," said Giles with the book in his arms. "We'll explain as best we can what this prophecy says." Everybody gathered in a large semi-circle centred on the two watchers as they explained as best they could what the prophecy said and what it meant.

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Tara and Paige completed the opening and stood aside to allow Buffy and the rest to descend through the seal. In view of what Giles and Wesley had said Willow had tried to say her goodbyes but Tara had refused to accept that their parting would be anything but temporary.

"But they said we have to shut the Hellmouth from both sides," said Willow who like almost everybody else had been thinking of the consequences of that. "If we win this battle we can't open it again, it'll be shut for good. And if we don't win it..."

"No," said Tara. "I don't care what it says in that prophecy. We'll be together again. I know it. Don't forget, the trick with prophecies is what they don't say. They never give you the whole truth. I know you'll win and I know we'll be together, together always. Death couldn't keep us apart and nor can anything else." Tara had given Willow a final kiss and had then joined Paige in opening the seal.

Paige had had a final few words with her sisters, Leo had spoken to Piper and Jenny had had a quiet moment with Giles. By unspoken agreement all of the Whitelighters put on a front of perfect confidence in a successful outcome, whatever their private misgivings. Finally the Charmed Ones at the end of the procession entered the seal with Prue turning to give her youngest sister a final smile before disappearing below.

Tara and Paige now stepped forward to conduct the ritual to close the seal. As they continued they saw the seal gradually fade away as the magic being applied from both sides took effect. Finally they finished, looked at each other and wordlessly embraced before turning away.

Tara and Paige were now surprised to see that instead of just Leo and Jenny the school basement had silently filled with up with people. Not people Tara quickly realised but Whitelighters. There must now be fifty Whitelighters here she thought.

All of the Whitelighters, including Leo and Jenny, were dressed in white robes. Leo and Jenny stepped forward with white robes in their arms for Tara and Paige. As they did so Tara could see that both Leo and Jenny now had large swords which were sheathed on their backs. In addition there were swords for Tara and Paige with the robes.

"What's going on Leo?" asked Paige taking her set of robes and sword. "What's this all about?"

"Just because we can't go into the Hellmouth doesn't mean we're just spectators," said Leo. "Anything that gets past our people in there will have to face us."

With that Leo drew his sword which was a signal for the other Whitelighters to do the same. All at once the swords all burst into flame.

"Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to get past us" he said.


	27. Into the Mouth of Hell

**Chapter Twenty Seven: Into the Mouth of Hell**

"Well you took your own sweet time," said Darla to Buffy as Buffy reached the bottom of the stairs beneath the seal. "Lucky for you the bad guys aren't ready to fight yet."

Darla was standing in a wide rocky but largely level area which was like a balcony overlooking a vast plain below. The only other person present was Drusilla who was some twenty yards away looking over the edge of the drop.

The plain below was a barren wasteland. Nothing grew there, nothing had ever grown there. There was no sunshine just a gloomy, overcast and uniformly bleak sky. Occasional flashes of light came from several places over the horizon punctuated by rumbles of noise like distant thunder.

"So when did you stop being one of the bad guys," said Xander suspiciously to Darla as he came up beside Buffy. "You know there's no way we're gonna trust you, either of you."

Darla shrugged, unconcerned. "You do what you like," she said. "We're here for our own reasons." Darla walked away towards Drusilla.

"Perhaps it would be best if Darla and Drusilla stayed with Angel's group," suggested Giles. "He knows them better than anybody. From what Connor said Darla may have some feelings for her son, especially now she has a soul."

"I'll have a word with Angel," said Buffy walking away. "I need to speak to him anyway."

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The Charmed Ones had performed their closing spell on the seal before descending to the bottom of the stairs. No sooner had they reached the bottom than the rough rocky stairway disappeared altogether. Now the area in which everybody stood had no exits either up or down apart from a long drop at the front down onto the plain below.

Piper stood and looked up at the way they had come. There was now no indication of an entrance, just an unbroken rocky ceiling far above. "So how do we get out of here again?" she asked Phoebe who stood next to her. "Do we all have to fly like you?"

"Those prophecy guys of Willow's were a little vague about that don't you think?" said Phoebe. "I'm hoping I get some sort of a mystic message when we've finished up here. Sort of like go to the third rock on the right and the secret passage hidden behind it will lead to the way out."

"We'd better concentrate on the job in hand," said Prue, "before we think of getting out. You were one of those who told us to come here remember. If we don't win there won't be anywhere to go back to anyway. "

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Faith and Vi now deployed their group of enhanced slayers near to the edge of the platform, on guard and ready for the first attack. Everybody else was assigned to carry loose rocks and boulders over to near the edge to provide ammunition to throw down onto the attackers when they arrived. Prue used her power to move more rocks than anybody else and quickly piled up large mounds at intervals along the edge.

"Over there!" said Vi pointing off into the distance where what looked like lines of ants were appearing over the horizon. Of course they weren't ants, they were just a long way away but they were moving fast towards Buffy and her troops and there were a lot of them.

"Seven attacks," said Xander. "That's what Giles said wasn't it? If we can hold off seven attacks..."

"The Seven Hordes of Hell," said Willow.

"Yeah, the Seven Hordes," said Xander. "Then we're home free."

"God," said Amy. "There must be thousands of them."

A few yards away Cordelia, Wesley, Fred and Gunn were also watching the approach of the enemy. Angel finished talking to Buffy. They embraced briefly before Angel joined his group and Buffy went back over to Willow, Xander and Giles.

"I count five columns of them," said Gunn. "Which one's the vampires? They make the first attack right?"

"They're all vampires," said a female voice from behind them. "Them and a lot more besides. You won't even survive the first attack."

The friends had turned on hearing the voice but only Gunn recognised who it was. It was his sister, his dead sister, or rather The First in the form of his sister. "See you soon," she said to Gunn and then disappeared.

Buffy and the others had decided on an aggressive defence. Rather than wait for the mass of uber-vampires to swarm all over them the defenders began to take toll of the advancing horde long before the vampires got close enough to do any damage themselves.

Prue sent wave after wave of rocks sailing over the edge of the platform and allowed them to drop onto the advancing vampires causing the destruction of many of the attackers. Meanwhile Piper, Phoebe and Amy worked together to cast a storm spell to concentrate some of the thick clouds above into heavy thunder clouds.

As the vampires reached the base of the cliff at the front of the platform ready to climb up, the rain clouds burst and bolts of lightning struck downwards amongst the vampires. The lightning strikes caused further casualties amongst the vampires, both from direct strikes and from the rocks struck from the cliff falling onto those below.

A further benefit was from the torrential rain making the rock face very slippery and thus more difficult to climb. The uber-vampires however proved themselves very adept at climbing very quickly so although they were slowed a little very few were actually dislodged by the rain.

These benefits for the defenders from the storm clouds were however incidental to their main purpose as Willow, Cordelia and Anya now performed their part of the plan. The chanting that the three now performed was not in fact a spell but was a blessing, a Wicca blessing that Willow had learnt from Tara and it worked perfectly.

Nobody had known whether all would go according to plan. Very often in battle things simply didn't work out but this time everything worked as well as the most optimistic forecast. The blessing, which Willow, Cordelia and Anya repeated over and over again was directed to the storm clouds and was intended to provide a torrent of holy water streaming down onto the vampires. As the blessing took effect screams from the vampires proved that the plan was working.

All of the vampires climbing the cliff rapidly disappeared in clouds of dust as did those under the falling rain at the base of the cliff. Concentrated as they were the clouds did not affect the mass of vampires further back who were out of the rain. Or at least not at first.

Prue now used her power to push the clouds back over the previously dry vampires, keeping the cloud movement steady at the right pace to wipe out all the vampires under the clouds before moving on. She was aided in what she was doing by the vampires themselves.

The uber-vampires were fearless and completely unaffected by the deaths of their comrades. They had been directed to attack and wipe out the Forces of Light so they simply kept coming forward determined to kill.

In other circumstances the advance of such a legion of deadly killers would have been irresistible but the uber-vampires now proved what had been shown over and over again in warfare: Being fearless and ferocious was no substitute for being intelligent.

The uber-vampires kept coming and they kept turning to dust. Eventually there were no more. Not only had they been wiped out but none of them had reached the top of the cliff and there were no casualties, in fact there were no wounds at all amongst the defenders.

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There was a delay after the first attack which allowed everybody to get a little rest and refreshment. Since The First was undoubtedly not doing them any favours it appeared clear that the rapid destruction of the first horde had taken their enemy by surprise thus causing a delay before the second attack could be mounted.

"Is that the best you can do?" yelled Xander from the edge of the platform. "That was pathetic, quite pathetic!"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Willow asked Buffy. "Stirring up the First like that?" She half expected to see The First appear in one form or another but nothing happened. He's probably busy right now she thought.

"Maybe it'll get the First to lose its temper and attack before it's ready," said Giles. "Anything we can do to get it to make mistakes will help us."

"Make more mistakes," corrected Buffy in a loud voice, making sure that everybody nearby heard her. "It hasn't done anything right yet."

Faith walked over to the group. "It's the demons next, right?" she asked. "Any idea what sort of demons?"

"The prophecy just says demons," said Giles shrugging his shoulders.

"That probably means all sorts of demons," said Willow. "The big, the bad and the ugly."

Buffy now stepped forward to the edge of the platform. "Looks like they're on the way," she said staring at the horizon. Once again distant columns of fast moving figures had appeared over the horizon and were headed their way. This time however some of the enemy were airborne.

As the demons got nearer a strong wind sprang up blowing away from the platform area where the defenders were waiting. The high clouds above began to stream away towards the approaching army making it impossible to concentrate them into thunderclouds once more. Clearly the enemy had taken action to prevent the Forces of Light from using the same tactics a second time.

A hurried conference of the magic users decided to adopt a suggestion made by Phoebe. This time the Halliwell sisters carried out a Power of Three spell. With a strong wind already blowing the sisters' spell was even more devastating than it might have been as they stirred up an even stronger wind, quickly strengthening to a major gale in the faces of the advancing demons.

The airborne demons were quickly swept from the sky, some of them over the horizon and far away but most of them to crash onto the ground amongst their terrestrial brethren.

The falling airborne demons not only caused casualties amongst the demons below but also sparked off strife in the ranks. Marshalling large numbers of demons of different types and from different tribes made a potentially formidable force but most demons were not used to working together or taking orders.

Demons did what they could to save themselves from their falling brethren. This caused collisions and further injury in the ranks as each demon looked to save itself, even if it meant trampling on and killing others. Before long large parts of the advancing horde had come to a halt as the demons set about each other.

Parts of the approaching army continued on its way however and now drew near to the base of the cliff. The most eager of the demons raced ahead of the main body and leapt onto the cliff and began climbing upwards.

By now the slayers, the enhanced potentials and the other fighters were ready in three lines at the top of the cliff. The magic users held themselves ready for their next move. Once more the attackers were met with falling rocks from the defenders including large clusters dropped by Prue but this didn't stop all of the attackers, there were simply too many.

As the first isolated demons reached the top of the cliff they were quickly despatched straight back down again to the bottom by Faith, Vi and their group of slayers. Some of the demons, particularly the large ones, were unimpressed by their first sight of their opponents but did not live long enough to realise their mistake.

The weapons wielded by the defenders now proved their effectiveness as one touch was usually fatal for a demon, even if it didn't penetrate the thick hide of some of the more well-protected varieties.

As the demon army closed up to the base of the cliff the numbers reaching the top of the platform continued to increase and Buffy now stepped forward to join the fight along with the Scooby gang, Angel and his group. Only Kennedy, Rona and their team plus the various magic users now stayed back from the fight.

"NOW!" shouted Willow a few minutes later, using magic to ensure that everybody heard, mentally as well as audibly, no matter how engrossed they were in the fighting.

All of the fighters at the front of the platform now despatched their current opponent and stepped back. At the same time Kennedy, Rona and their team fired crossbow bolts into those demons that were still standing.

Now Willow stepped forward to use her power. "Back!" she commanded and swept all of the remaining demons from the top of the cliff. The respite would be brief however as the demons were being constantly replaced by others climbing the cliff. The respite however was long enough because as the next wave of demons reached the top of the cliff Cordelia, Amy, Anya and Giles completed their spell.

The front of the cliff began to shake throwing to the ground those demons who had now completed their climb and dislodging many of those still on the way up. Now parts of the cliff began to break away, taking with it many demons and crushing others below. Finally, as the defenders all moved back as far as they could the whole of the cliff front broke away and collapsed down upon the demon army which was now gathered closely up against the bottom of the cliff ready to join the fight.

The collapsing cliff took a while to settle and it was several minutes before Buffy and some others walked forward to the new edge and looked down. There was still a great deal of dust in the air but as it settled and blew away on the still strong wind it became clear that there were no living demons below.

The falling rubble had hit the base of the cliff and then flowed away engulfing the entire army gathered below. This movement of the mass of rock had been part of the spell that had ripped the rock free. The only movements that could now be seen were the small adjustments of the still unstable pile of debris as it gradually settled down.

"Guess that makes us 2 and O," said Xander with some satisfaction.

Buffy felt no satisfaction, just relief that they'd all survived. All survived? "Have we lost anybody?" she asked turning to the people around her.

As it happened there were three losses. Isabella and Annabelle of Vi's group had been struck down by demons and Fred had been hit by a rock thrown by a demon immediately after it had reached the top of the cliff.

"Where are they?" asked Buffy. "I want to see them."

"I saw Annabelle taken down by a demon," said Faith, "but as she hit the ground she faded away. No body. She was very brave. If she hadn't charged at it I wouldn't be here myself."

Vi confirmed that the same thing had happened to Isabelle who had been hit by one demon whilst killing another. She too had faded away and left no body behind.

A sombre Wesley gave a similar story as far as Fred was concerned. "She must have taken down a dozen of them with her crossbow before she went down," he said. "When she was hit by that rock she fell to the ground and just faded away before I could get to her."

"What's it mean Giles?" asked Buffy. "Why no bodies? What's going on?"

"I don't know," said Giles. "There's nothing about it in the prophecy," he added looking at Wesley.

"Maybe it's like vampires," suggested Wesley. "They turn to dust in our world. We fade away in their's."

"Except the vampires dust here as well," said Xander. Wesley shrugged.

"I know she's gone to a better place," said Buffy putting her hand on Wesley's shoulder. "Believe me I know."

Meanwhile Vi was talking to Willow and Piper. "I know we don't have any Whitelighters but can you or any of the magic users do anything to heal wounds?"

"I can try," said Willow. "I've seen what Tara did but I've never tried it myself."

Willow walked over to Gunn and Lakshmi the worst injured. As she did so she was thinking of Tara and how she healed. She crouched down next to Gunn and cleared her mind. "It's quite simple," said a familiar voice in her mind. "Just look at the wound and remember how the body should be without the wound, both inside and out. Don't forget, I'll always be with you."

"Tara?" said Willow recognising the voice, looking up and smiling.

"What?" said Gunn, breathing with difficulty.

"Hold still," ordered Willow looking at the large red scald mark over Gunn's chest. He had been hit by venom ejected at him by a tall green-scaled demon just before he had taken off its head with his sword.

Willow concentrated on the wound and was delighted to see the healing light appear over the wound, the light that she had seen produced by Tara. Gunn's wound repaired itself completely.

"So are you a Whitelighter too now?" asked Piper who had watched the whole time with Vi.

"Oh no," said Willow. "I'm not a Whitelighter. I think I did that because I'm still linked to Tara."

"Could you do it a few more times?" asked Vi.

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Kennedy, Rona and their group had now taken over the guard position at the front of the balcony allowing the other group to move back to rest. It was one of this group, Elizabeth who spotted the next enemy threat. The monsters were on the way.

The monsters were not as numerous as the vampires and demons but they were bigger, much bigger and every one seemed to be unique. The smallest appeared to be the size of an elephant and the biggest the size of a large dinosaur.

Striding long at the head of the latest horde was a large ape like creature, for all the world like King Kong except for having four arms. Not far behind and to the right of the ape was what could only be described as a land octopus or squid. It had many tentacles at the front and seemed to just slither along at about the same pace as the fast striding ape.

The third front runner amongst the monsters was what could have been a survivor from the age of dinosaurs. It was a large four legged lizard, about twice the size of a rhino. As it trotted forward a long snake-like tongue shot in and out of its mouth. As it came closer a loud hissing could be heard coming from the creature.

The remaining monsters were either not in such a hurry as the three in the lead or they were not able to move as quickly. There were about a dozen more of them altogether of various shapes and sizes.

As the three leading demons approached the base of the cliff they were attacked, from the rear. The three slayers had hidden themselves in the rubble and now emerged after the first monsters had passed. Buffy attacked 'King Kong', Faith attacked the wannabe dinosaur and Kennedy attacked big Octy.

Buffy, using the Battle Scythe was able to surprise the giant ape and quickly inflict fatal injuries. She drove the point of the weapon into the creature's heart from the rear and then withdrew it to cut off its head.

Faith found herself with a more difficult task. To reach the lizard's head she jumped onto the tail and ran along the creature's back. The lizard quite naturally reacted violently to shake off the slayer and did so but not before the fast moving Faith managed to deliver a fatal blow to the head with the Troll Hammer.

Kenney found herself with the most difficult task of all. She carried an enchanted axe but this did not have the same immediate impact as the weapons carried by the other two slayers. It was also more difficult to find a vital organ to attack sufficiently quickly to incapacitate the octopus before it did damage of its own. Kennedy therefore only managed to get in two blows to the head of the creature before being picked up by one of its tentacles and flung against the cliff face.

Buffy now set about the octopus while Faith carried the unconscious Kennedy up the cliff as quickly as she could before the remaining monsters arrived. Buffy found herself loping off tentacles as they came at her. As she did so she remembered a story of a creature which grew two extra arms for every one that was cut off. Hope it's not one of those she thought. Thankfully it wasn't.

Buffy left the third dead monster at the bottom of the cliff just in time to be able to climb the cliff in safety before the other monsters arrived. She arrived in time to see Willow work a healing on Kennedy at the back of the balcony.


	28. Holding the Line

**Chapter Twenty Eight: Holding the Line**

Buffy walked around the balcony area having a word here, a word there, trying to keep everybody's spirits up. Xander followed behind her, guarding her back and keeping a careful lookout. Nearly everybody left was spread around the perimeter of the area up against the rock walls that surrounded them on three sides.

The plan was to make sure that nobody was exposed unnecessarily by being out in the open. Anybody who moved away from the rock walls had to make sure that somebody was covering their back. The precautions were considered necessary in order to be ready for the next wave of attackers, the warlocks.

Buffy had distributed the defenders in groups so that an effective cross fire could be sent against anybody appearing in the middle of the area. The remaining loose rock had been piled up to give as much protection as possible against the fireballs that were the usual Warlock weapon. The description of the next horde as warlocks had at first caused some confusion until the Halliwells had pointed out that some of the demons that they faced were sometimes called warlocks.

The only people out in the open were two pairs of lookouts at the edge of the cliff, alert to spot any unexpected move by the enemy. Although the warlocks were expected to 'blink', that is to say teleport into the attack Buffy thought it best to take no chances.

Everybody was getting what rest they could. In particular the magic users were feeling the strain of repeated spell casting. Buffy walked past Amy who was sat with her back to the rock wall fast asleep and reached the Halliwell sisters.

"You know about these warlocks," said Buffy as she reached the sisters. "Why do you think they're taking so long?" So far several hours had passed since they had managed to kill the last of the monsters.

Phoebe shrugged. "The warlocks live on Earth," she said. "Not down here, at least most of the time. Perhaps it's taking the First a little while to round them up."

"The longer the better," said Xander yawning. "Maybe he's not paying them enough."

"We've probably messed up the First's schedule," said Piper.

"So by getting rid of these warlocks down here we'll help things back on Earth. Every warlock killed down here is one less up there after this is all over," said Buffy.

"I suppose," replied Piper. "If we win and if there is an up there afterwards."

"When we win," corrected Prue, trying to remain outwardly optimistic whatever her private misgivings. "There's no way anything's getting past us and reopening that Hellmouth." And no way anything's getting past me and getting to my littlest sister she thought.

Buffy continued on back to where she had started next to Dawn and Giles where Xander slumped down onto the ground, his back to the rock wall. Buffy had been the last of their pair to take a break so now she remained standing and on guard. As she did so she went through recent events and took time to mourn, however briefly, friends lost.

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As the rest of the monsters had arrived at the base of the cliff they had been met with falling rocks and a volley of crossbow bolts. This inflicted damage on the advancing enemy but no immediate deaths. The monsters were simply too big and strong to be destroyed quickly by such means and although many of them had roared in pain they had all begun to ascend the cliff face.

The first to the top had been an ogre, a twelve foot tall, green skinned, immensely strong brute wielding a large wooden club. Prue had stepped forward to sweep him back off the cliff with her power. After that the monsters had then seemed to appear in a rush and the fight against them had developed into a number of separate combats with the defenders.

Piper had managed to explode what could only be described as a slime monster. A large black lump of a creature which had oozed up the cliff face and had threatened to engulf a couple of the enhanced potentials who found themselves backed up against the rocks. Although the slime monster had completely disappeared it left behind it a very pungent smell.

Connor had tried to skewer a sort of super heavy weight yeti with his sword but either the creature had some sort of immunity to such an attack or its heart and other vital organs weren't in the usual places. Without removing Connor's sword from its body the creature knocked him aside with a massive forearm blow knocking him unconscious and propelling him back twenty feet.

That was the last thing the creature would ever do however as it immediately slumped to the ground dead. It wasn't that Connor's sword had finally been effective. It was dead because of the loss of its head which had been neatly chopped off from behind by a furious mother vampire.

Wood had been the first fatality of the attack as far as the defenders were concerned. A tentacle had slithered rapidly over the edge of the drop and pulled him over the cliff before anybody could chop it off. Just as he went over the drop he had thrown his axe into the back of a large goblin type creature that screamed in pain. Wood had disappeared from view and could not be found after the fight.

Gwen had found herself faced with a very large flightless bird with red plumage and a large hooked beak. Goodness knows how it managed to get up the cliff she thought but that didn't stop her from pretty well cooking it with her full electrical power. Unfortunately as she turned away to give help elsewhere she had been flattened by a falling giant. Like the others who had been lost her body faded away.

The combat was ended when Kennedy, now restored to health by Willow had led a group of the enhanced potentials in a furious charge which managed to drive the remaining monsters back towards the cliff edge. At this point Willow, Amy and Cordelia had combined to send a blast of fire towards the creatures which destroyed the remaining monsters and cleared them from the area.

"Sorry guys," said Willow to those around her after taking a deep breath. "We'd have done that sooner but I'm afraid we're all slowing down."

Unfortunately the cost of each battle continued to be higher than the last. As well as Wood and Gwen a check afterwards had revealed that Wesley, Ingrid and Molly could no longer be found. Nobody had seen them fall but then nobody had been standing around taking notes. Everybody had been concerned with survival.

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Voices, he could hear voices. They sounded familiar, as if he knew the people talking but he could not bring any names to mind. He couldn't bring his own name to mind. What's going on he thought?

For some reason he expected to be in pain, great pain, but he wasn't. He felt as if he had just woken from a long sleep and he had that comfortable warm feeling that it would be so easy to just turn over and fall asleep again.

"Wesley," said a familiar female voice clearly from the surrounding babble. "Wesley, wake up!"

Wesley? Who's Wesley? Then he remembered, he was Wesley and the voice was... Fred.

Wesley opened his eyes to see a concerned Fred leaning over him. Realising that Wesley was now awake Fred's expression of concern changed to her familiar broad smile.

"You can't just lie here you know," said Fred.

Wesley opened his eyes and sat up. "What...what's going on?" he asked wondering where he was, what was happening, how...? Then it hit and he began to remember.

"Fred?" said Wesley. "But I saw you... that is you uh..."

As he spoke Wesley looked around him. He was no longer in the same place he had been. As he looked he recognised more faces and then he realised where he was.

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At last the warlocks appeared. The fourth horde from hell had finally arrived. They blinked in as expected but not one at a time nor as scattered individuals. Instead they suddenly appeared in a solid group in the heart of the balcony area. As soon as the warlocks arrived they started to form and throw fireballs at the defenders spread around them.

Piper immediately used her freeze power and all of the fireballs and some of the warlocks froze. With so many warlocks present however many of them were unaffected. The unaffected warlocks continued to form fresh fireballs to send against their enemies unaffected by Piper's power.

Many of the defenders would have died early in the battle had the tactics of the warlocks not been expected and had precautions not been taken in advance to deal with the threat they posed. As well as ducking behind rocks as much as possible all of the defenders were already wearing an amulet as protection against Jasmine. In preparation for the attack the charmed sisters and the other magic users had enhanced everybody's amulet to provide as much protection as possible against the fireballs of the warlocks.

Immediately the warlocks appeared everybody who was not already standing jumped to their feet and everybody started firing crossbow bolts and throwing knives, axes, rocks and anything else that came to hand. Warlocks that were hit by the blessed and enchanted crossbow bolts mostly just disappeared in a blaze of fire. Others who were hit by thrown knives and axes generally disappeared just as promptly.

Piper now switched to her other power to explode warlock after warlock. With crossbow bolts, knives and fireballs flying in all directions Prue was careful in using her power, not wishing to send something the wrong way by mistake. She concentrated on defending everybody as much as she could and returning the fireballs back to where they came from. Phoebe, armed with a crossbow of her own took her own toll of the enemy.

Buffy and most of the others who were used to fighting hand to hand held themselves back from rushing into the crowd of warlocks and cutting loose with their weapons. They continued to fire from a distance and kept behind cover as much as possible with their backs to the rock walls. That way the warlocks were given no chance to blink in behind somebody.

The Halliwells had insisted that to go out into the open against warlocks would be disastrous. Prue had explained:

"They can disappear from right in front of you, appear behind you and hit you with a fireball or something else before you can turn round."

"And these are the enemies you usually come up against?" asked Kennedy. "How do you deal with them?"

"Sometimes I wonder," said Piper. "You really need to have eyes in the back of your head and you have to be pretty quick on your feet."

"The odd thing is that once we start chanting a vanquish spell, the right sort of vanquish spell, they just sort of freeze," said Phoebe.

"You mean like Piper freezes them?" asked Willow.

"No, not like that," said Phoebe. "They just sort of stand there and let us destroy them. It's like once we start chanting the right spell they have to wait for us to finish it."

"Like rabbits in the headlights," said Xander.

"Do you mind!" objected Anya. "We have enough trouble without bringing rabbits into it. Giles and Wesley said nothing about a horde of rabbits otherwise I wouldn't be here."

"So could you do a vanquish spell on them as soon as they arrive?" asked Buffy. "Sort of hello, goodbye, don't call back."

"I'm afraid it's not as easy as that," said Prue. "A general vanquish only works on the weakest of warlocks and then usually only one at a time. For most warlocks we need to know something about them in order to do a vanquish spell specific to them."

"And we often need to use more than a simple chant," said Piper. "We usually need the right sort of powders and potions as well."

"We're better off using our powers to fight them," said Prue.

The weapons fired by the defenders, because of the way they were prepared, were nearly always fatal to the warlocks even if the wounds inflicted would not normally have killed. The defenders however did not come off unscathed.

Whilst the defenders tried to avoid the hail of fireballs coming from the warlocks by dodging aside or ducking behind the rocks many of them were hit. The protection provided by the amulets was usually sufficient to prevent death or injury but not always. Sometimes two or more fireballs hit at the same time and this was usually too much for the protective amulets and resulted in the loss or injury of another defender.

The weapons on both sides were so effective that it only took a few minutes to bring everything to a climax. By now there were only the three most powerful warlocks left. They must have known they could not survive but they were clearly under orders to fight to the death and aware of presumably unpleasant consequences if they didn't do so because they made no attempt to teleport away.

As a last blast they combined to fire together at the cause of the death of so many of their comrades, Piper Halliwell. Prue managed to divert one of the three fireballs but the other two struck home even as the three warlocks dissolved in flame themselves because of the weapons striking them.

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Buffy stood and hugged Dawn. Neither of them could believe that Giles was gone. Nobody had seen him struck down but he was one of the missing after the last of the warlocks had been destroyed.

Others had their own grief. With Piper gone there was no more Power of Three and that could have serious consequences before the fighting was over. Prue sat with her arm around Phoebe, neither saying anything.

Darla had entered the Hellmouth knowing it was a one way trip for her. She knew all about not being to blame for the deeds of her unsouled self but she couldn't believe there'd ever be forgiveness for what she'd done as a vampire. She'd pretty well agreed to become a vampire all those years ago. She'd forgotten a lot, including everything that had happened after her previous vampire death but that was something she did remember just as she remembered asking to be remade into a vampire after she had been brought back.

Connor had been healed by Willow after the fight with the monsters and had taken his toll of the warlocks but had then been one of the last defenders to be struck down by the fireballs. Darla had remained by his side all through the fight and had not realised that he had been hit until it was too late. Now she was in a very black mood indeed.

Also struck down were two more of the enhanced potentials, the Australian twins Mary and Elizabeth. Mary had been hit by two fireballs at the start of the fight and her grief stricken sister had then charged into the group of warlocks striking left and right with her sword. She had taken down four of them before being hit by three fireballs at once and disappearing herself.

Willow felt exhausted. She'd just finished another round of healing. She knew that she must be drawing strength from Tara somehow because otherwise she didn't see how she could possibly still be standing. It was only as she had completed her rounds that she had realised that somebody else was missing; Amy.

Piper, Amy and Giles all gone thought Willow. She tried to put aside her grief. She'll have time for that later. Anyway she thought, as Buffy said we know they're in a better place. The immediate problem was they were running out of magic users. What'll we do? According to what Giles and Wesley said only magic will stop the next horde.

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"There they are!" called Faith from the edge of the cliff. "Three of them, just like Wesley said." The dragons were on their way. As yet they were distant specs in the sky. They gradually began to grow in size as they came nearer.

The plan had been for the charmed sisters to put up a magical barrier to the dragon fire which was the main and perhaps most deadly threat they faced from the dragons. If possible the charmed ones would use the barrier to send the dragon fire back at the dragons and destroy them.

Without Piper Buffy realised that there was no Power of Three and maybe no prospect of a magical barrier. On hearing Faith's warning call Buffy turned and hurried over to where Willow, Cordelia and Anya were talking to the three sisters.

Wait a minute thought Buffy, THREE sisters...what the...? As she got closer Buffy realised that there were indeed three sisters but that two of them appeared to be Prue. One of the Prues was sat on a rock seemingly unconscious with Phoebe holding onto her. "Two Prue's?" she asked, "how come?"

"Prue has the power to produce an astral double of herself," said Cordelia pulling Buffy away from the group of talking witches. "The problem is the astral double can't do magic so no Power of Three and generally Prue is inactive while her double is awake. Willow's trying to help them get round all that and link the astral double to Paige back on Earth so they can get the Power of Three back up and running. In the meantime the rest of us have got to keep the dragons away."

"Everybody spread out!" ordered Buffy as she walked away from Willow and the Halliwells followed by Cordelia and Anya. "Take cover if you can! Those things are like flying flame throwers."

"Anya and I'll throw what we can at them," said Cordelia "but I don't know how effective it'll be."

Meanwhile the dragons were getting a lot closer. As they did so it became clear that these were truly monstrous creatures. Suddenly the leading dragon dived and dipped below the level of the cliff at the front of the balcony area only to appear from below and land on the cliff edge. As it did so it opened it's maw to let out its blast of fire, intending to incinerate all the defenders at once.

What everybody had forgotten, including Buffy, was that there was another magic user present. As the dragon landed and got ready to blast everybody with its fire Drusilla stepped forward and threw a small black ball into its mouth.

The dragon, either through surprise or because of the effect of whatever was in the ball closed its mouth abruptly without sending out any fire. Clearly the attack from Drusilla had a serious and immediate impact on the monstrous lizard because it put its head back and roared in pain before turning away and leaping back up into the sky.

Now the dragon was heading away from the cliff as fast as it could go. Whether it had a plan to deal with what Drusilla had done or whether it was just rushing away from the source of its pain would never be known because only seconds after taking flight the dragon exploded.

This left two dragons remaining, two dragons that were now very angry at what they had seen happen to their companion and were looking for payback. They now dived together towards the defended area. Having seen what had happened to the other dragon the two remaining beasts sent their flaming breath ahead of them even before they landed.

Cordelia, with Buffy on one side and Anya on the other stood in the path of the approaching dragons. She held her magic wand outstretched in front of her in her right hand. Anya held tightly to her left. As soon as she saw the dragon flame appear Cordelia sent all the power she had left, together with all the power Anya could give her, through the wand.

The force coming out of Cordelia's wand diverted the dragon flame to either side, completely preventing it from entering the balcony area and doing any harm. Either because the dragons were only able to sustain brief bursts of flame or because Cordelia and Anya's magic had drained the oncoming dragons the flames went out after a few seconds. However the dragons kept coming and they were awfully big and had awfully big teeth and claws.

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Xander could stand it no longer. He knew he couldn't stop one dragon let alone two but he wasn't just going to watch while three women he loved were torn apart. He was determined to do something, to get in some sort of blow on the dragons so he rushed out in front of the three women right into the path of the diving dragons.

What Xander had not realised was that Willow and the Halliwells were now ready with their spell, a Power of Three spell plus one. As the dragons touched down on the top of the cliff looking completely unstoppable they were hit by the vanquish spell.

The spell, although effective was not immediate. The dragons began to roar and scream in pain, all the time flailing around with their tails and claws. Large boulders were knocked out of the rock walls and amongst the casualties was Xander who was hit by a dragon tail and propelled into a pile of newly fallen rocks. He started to fade even as he was in the air and quite disappeared soon after he landed.

Buffy, Cordelia and Anya tried to get out of the way of the dying dragons but all were struck savage blows. Only Buffy had the slayer resilience to survive. The dragons finally seemed to melt away until they were no more. Looking at the rubble scattered all around Buffy wondered if anybody else had survived.


	29. Challenge

**Chapter Twenty Nine: Challenge**

So few, so few left thought Buffy as she looked around her. Only three magic users: Willow, Prue and Phoebe. The two senior slayers: Buffy herself and Faith and only three others: Angel, Rona and Caridad. Everybody else had now gone. Miraculously everybody who survived was uninjured apart from minor cuts and bruises.

The two dragons, in their dying frenzy had accounted for everybody else who had survived the previous fighting. Some had been taken out by direct blows from the dragons, especially their powerful tails but by far the most of them had been under some of the many rocks which the dragons had knocked from the surrounding rock walls.

After searching frantically and unsuccessfully for Dawn Buffy had been in shock. She had kept repeating to herself over and over: She's in a better place, she's in a better place. She's happy, she's really happy now. I should know.

Buffy stood up from the rock where she had been sitting and walked over to where Angel was standing next to Willow and the Halliwells.

"How you doing?" he asked.

"I'll be OK," she replied giving him a brief hug. "Anybody remember what comes next?" she asked as she broke the embrace. Does it matter she thought? Each attack is worse than the last. Can we survive horde number six and if we do what about number seven?

"From what I recall the last two 'Hordes of Hell' are a bit of a mystery," said Willow from her seat wearily slumped back against a large boulder. "Number six is 'The Masters' and number seven 'The Nameless' whatever all that means."

Faith said nothing from her position a few yards away keeping watch. She didn't feel like taking part in the conversation, any conversation, at the moment. She'd passed through grief and was now very, very angry. Whatever this First Evil was it had taken away nearly all of her new friends.

What Faith really wanted was to have her friends back again. Willow, Xander, Giles, the old gang had always been Buffy's friends, not hers. In fact even before the business with the deputy mayor Faith had not been close to any of them. Now she had had friends of her own and they'd been taken from her. She was therefore looking for payback. She just wanted to have something in front of her that she could kill or at least damage in a big way.

"I think there's more going on here than we realise," said Angel.

"What do you mean," asked Prue.

"I saw Darla get hit by some of those boulders that the dragons knocked down," he said. "She didn't dust, she faded."

"So what does that mean?" asked Buffy.

"I don't know," said Angel. "But she wasn't destroyed the way vampires are destroyed so maybe she was redeemed. Maybe by fighting here with us, with the forces of light, she redeemed herself."

"It's like I've been saying, they're all in a better place," said Buffy.

"OK," called Faith. "But we're still in this place and we've got more visitors coming."

Everybody stood up and grabbed their weapons. Prue, Phoebe and Willow held hands ready to work together to use whatever power they could still summon. Astral Prue didn't appear. After her previous exertions Prue wasn't sure she was strong enough to summon her astral self again so soon and anyway she felt she needed to see what they were up against first.

Everybody moved forward to get a good look at the three figures that were approaching.

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Two others were watching the approaching figures. Glory stood in the rocks high above where Buffy and the others were gathered and carefully studied the approaching newcomers. Jasmine stood silently beside her doing the same thing.

This was the moment of decision. What Glory really wanted to do was destroy Buffy and her remaining friends before going back home. The trouble was that killing Buffy would only help The First and would probably mean Glory never went home. Glory realised that helping The First was the last thing she should be doing. Glory had no intention of setting up The First as her master which was why she had decided to act differently.

Jasmine glanced briefly at Glory before returning to her study of the approaching newcomers. Jasmine thought that Glory would probably do exactly what they had agreed but she was unsure of what Glory intended to do afterwards. She could probably rely on Glory to act in her own best interests but she was not confident that Glory always knew what those were. Oh well she thought. Time will tell.

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The three approaching figures looked like humans except for the fact that they were flying. They were each standing on small platforms which were carrying them forward without any visible means of propulsion. The figure in the middle was female, the other two male. All three were wearing armour and carrying weapons.

The three newcomers landed at the edge of the cliff, walked forward and stopped. They were all very tall and looked to be completely human. The right hand individual, a black skinned, black bearded, heavily muscled character drew a large sword from over his shoulder and strode forward two paces.

"We are The Masters," he shouted in a loud voice. "This is our realm. Who comes to challenge?"

"What is this," asked Rona. "WWE with swords?"

"We're just here to guard the Hellmouth," said Buffy. "We're here to make sure it stays closed. We're not here to challenge anybody."

"But I am," said Glory as she landed from a leap from far above brandishing a sword of her own. "You look like my type," she said smiling at the bearded warrior. "Soft and cuddly."

"So am I," said Jasmine who arrived a moment later. "I'll take on mister sour face. I'm sure I can cheer him up, one way or the other." Jasmine's remarks were directed towards the other male newcomer a Viking-like character with a winged helmet and long blond hair. Just like Glory Jasmine brandished a sword of her own.

What Glory and Jasmine knew but Buffy and her allies didn't was that 'The Masters' were a type of Hellgod themselves. Glory and Jasmine, by defeating their opponents could each gain what they wanted. Glory would gain enough power to return to her own realm. She would be able to do this without having to rely on Buffy's people to find a way to send her home and without being dependent of the doubtful goodwill of The First Evil.

Jasmine intended to take up residence in this hell dimension. By killing one of the resident Hellgods she would create a vacancy and at the same time gain sufficient power to become a force in the dimension. Both Glory and Jasmine had decided to take advantage of what was a rare opportunity to take on a single opponent. An invasion in other circumstances would almost certainly have failed as it could have meant trying to take on all three Hellgods at the same time.

Jasmine's opponent now pulled a large double headed axe from a sheath on his back and swung it around a couple of times to loosen up. He then made to move forward only to be stopped by a signal from his female companion.

"Before the fun begins who challenges me?" she asked. "There must be three challengers and two must win or you will all be destroyed." As she said this she produced her own weapon, another sword, but this was black and immediately burst into flame, a jet black flame.

Buffy stepped forward but was pulled back by Faith who now strode forward. "I challenge," she said holding the troll hammer high above her head.

"Faith!" said Buffy once again starting forward but Willow held onto her arm.

"Let her do this," said Willow. "With that hammer she's got as good a chance as you and we're gonna need you at the end."

"She's right," said Angel. "You have to be here for the last fight."

As Faith, Glory and Jasmine moved forward to fight 'The Masters' all six of the contestants disappeared.

"Hey," said Rona. "I thought we'd at least get to watch."

They did indeed get to watch however as Phoebe pointed out that all six fighters had appeared on the plain below.

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At first it was not apparent to those watching who was winning the individual combats because all six fighters started cautiously. They were all dealing with unknown opponents. As time went by however all of the fighters speeded up. Suddenly Jasmine was hit a terrific blow by her opponent and knocked end over end a considerable distance. This contest was far from over however as Jasmine was immediately back on her feet and trading high speed blows once again.

Buffy and the others watching were quite clear that they wanted Faith to win her contest but were less clear in their feelings about Glory and Jasmine. Had they really changed sides and if so would it last? What would they do if they won? Would Buffy and her companions have to fight them next?

Meanwhile Faith's only concern was dealing with her immediate opponent. The woman, if that's what she was, was proving to be a difficult proposition. The sword gave the woman much greater reach than Faith had with the troll hammer. Faith found herself spending most of her time using the hammer defensively to knock away the sword.

Certainly Faith hadn't fought anybody this tough since the last of her fights with Buffy. In fact since Faith hadn't had the troll hammer when she fought Buffy this woman might just be tougher she thought.

Other problems for Faith were the speed of her opponent and the fact that she seemed able to anticipate Faith's every move. Landing a blow on her was proving to be next to impossible. At the same time Faith had already been singed a couple of times by the burning sword and appropriately it hurt like hell.

Until her fight with Buffy, Glory had never even considered the possibility of fighting and losing to anybody or anything. She had learnt differently and now she was using that experience to good effect. Glory's first instinct was to charge forward and simply destroy her opponent. She resisted that urge and concentrated on wearing him down and making sure he did no damage to her. Glory had in mind coming out of this fight not just with a win but unharmed and at full power. She knew that after this fight she might very well have another contest on her hands.

As the fight continued Faith gained familiarity with the style of her opponent. It was a style she knew very well but the odd thing was she didn't remember facing anybody like it before. Suddenly she realised what she was seeing. She's fighting me the way I fight other people. I wonder if the other 'Masters' are pulling the same trick she thought.

Faith made another attack, only this time she had switched the troll hammer quickly to her left hand to take her opponent by surprise. Only it was no surprise because the move was countered and Faith found herself dodging the return thrust of her enemy's sword.

Faith had deliberately attacked in an unusual manner, unusual for her that is but it hadn't taken her opponent by surprise she realised, not even a little bit. She's reading me she thought. She's not just copying my style she's reading me. I bet she thinks she's very clever. Well its time to change the rules.

Meanwhile Jasmine seemed to be getting pummelled. She hadn't been able to land a telling blow on her opponent but had taken a few herself. Although she continued to have her usual smile plastered on her face she was no longer feeling her usual cheerful self. For the first time she began to doubt the outcome of the contest.

Jasmine was suddenly down and Buffy and her companions watched as the 'Viking' character stepped forward to finish the fight with his sword. His blow never landed however as he was hit by the troll hammer hurled by Faith. The blow stunned the 'Viking' and he was still stunned as the fast recovering Jasmine took his head off with her sword.

This left Faith unarmed, or rather only armed with the knife she pulled from her belt, to face the armoured woman. Faith rapidly backed away from her opponent, dodging, weaving and feinting to throw the knife. The thing was thought Faith, would Jasmine now return the favour and help her or would she just watch what looked to be an unequal contest.

"You cheated!" screamed Faith's opponent as she advanced, sword held high ready to end the contest.

"Yeah," said Faith. "So sue me. I know some lawyers who'd be glad to take your case."

The armoured woman continued to advance and Faith continued to dodge, aided by the fact that she now knew what she was facing. Faith decided her best bet would be to get inside the guard of the other woman and take hold of her sword. She stepped forward to do this and then did something completely different by delivering a high kick to the head.

Faith's rapid change of mind had taken her opponent by surprise. She'd managed to think fast enough to negate the other woman's ability to read her. The problem was she'd not managed to knock down the other woman who had also kept her grip on her sword. Faith had however taken second prize because she was now closer to the fallen 'Viking' than her opponent. She immediately took advantage by rushing over to the body and picking up the troll hammer once more.

Faith had no time to wonder what Jasmine was doing or where she had gone. Whether Jasmine would have helped Faith or even Glory would never be known because soon after she killed her opponent she had disappeared. Buffy and the other watchers didn't know whether Jasmine had pulled the disappearance herself or whether it was a consequence of winning the contest.

Meanwhile Glory continued her battle with the black bearded Hellgod. Glory never had a very deep well of patience to begin with and she was now becoming more and more frustrated. Everything she tried was countered. She sped up and her opponent sped up, she stood and traded blows and her opponent did the same and gave as good as or better than he got. She tried high leaps and twists but found her opponent ready to counter with moves of his own. Overall Glory found herself taking more and more punishment and she was unpleasantly reminded of her fight with Buffy.

Suddenly everything happened at once. Faith managed to work a little space and hurled the troll hammer at Glory's opponent. At least that's what her mind said she was doing but at the last moment she hung onto the hammer and let it go in the opposite direction where it hit the armoured woman full on. She was taken completely by surprise as she had read Faith's first move.

Faith's opponent fell like a stone, the impact increased as the woman had been leaping forward to take advantage of Faith's original intention. Faith immediately followed up with her knife to deliver a killing thrust.

At the same time Glory's opponent clearly had some awareness of what Faith had done to Jasmine's Viking because he moved to dodge the hammer that he thought Faith was throwing at him. This was his one mistake as he had to momentarily divert his attention from Glory. Glory took full advantage and drove her sword into his face ending the third contest at the same time as Faith completed her victory.

Like Jasmine both Glory and Faith now disappeared. It wasn't the same as the fading away that had happened to the earlier casualties however but nevertheless they were both gone. Buffy half expected Faith to reappear back on the cliff top but as she continued to wait this didn't happen.

"Where do you think she went?" asked Rona. "Do you think she's alright?"

"You don't think she's being punished for breaking the rules do you?" asked Caridad.

"What rules?" asked Buffy.

"I don't think there are any rules," said Willow. "Except winning. If she hadn't won we wouldn't still be here."

"Waiting for the 'Nameless' to turn up next," said Prue.

"Is that what that is then," asked Rona pointing to the horizon.

Slowly advancing over the horizon towards them was a black cloud which rolled along the ground and began to occupy more and more space as it advanced.

Despite the strong wind that Prue and Phoebe conjured up the black cloud kept advancing towards them. It was clearly not in any way a normal cloud because it advanced steadily against the wind. As the wind seemed to have no affect at all on its progress the Halliwells stopped their efforts.

"Looks like this is it all right," said Buffy. "The question is, is it the cloud itself or something that's hidden in the cloud that we have to worry about?"

At that stage Prue noticed the familiar signs of her sister having one of her visions. "Phoebe! What did you see?" she asked.

"It wasn't so much a vision, more a message," said Phoebe.

"Did it tell you what's coming?" asked Buffy.

"No, I'm afraid not," said Phoebe. "The message was on the lines that we've got to get through this... this whatever it is. As long as one of us makes it through then the Hellmouth stays shut."

"That's pretty well what the prophecy said," commented Willow.

Everybody turned back to watch the approaching cloud. It was continuing to move forward slowly. It was now entirely over the horizon. It was sufficiently large to cover the whole balcony area on which they were all standing but not much larger.

Willow stood with the rest and watched the cloud continue to roll forward along the ground. She still felt exhausted but she hadn't done any spells since helping destroy the dragons. She felt that she could perhaps do one more spell before she was completely drained but certainly no more. But would spells do any good against this enemy? She couldn't see how weapons would be any use but what would be effective?

Buffy stood next to Angel with her Battle Scythe in hand. Angel was armed with a sword. He gave Buffy a quick hug and then stood aside far enough to be able to swing the sword freely. Buffy gave him a quick smile and then turned back to look at the cloud.

"Don't you think we should go down there?" asked Caridad. "The speed that thing's moving we could stay out of its way like forever."

"Yeah," said Rona. "It seems to be getting slower and slower. Maybe it's running out of steam. Can clouds run out of steam or do they run out of cloud?"

"We can't let it get past us," said Buffy. "We're here to stop anything getting past. It or whatever it's hiding might be able to reopen the Hellmouth."

"I wish it would just get on with it," said Prue feeling as tired as Willow. "Let's get this over and done with."

Prue's comment sparked a idea in Willow. "I think I know what it is," she said.

Everybody turned to Willow. "I think it's The First Evil," she said. "I know that's what it's called but it's not a name, it's a description not a proper name. I think the Nameless is The First and that's why it's taking so long to get here."

"I don't follow Will," said Buffy.

"It's playing games," said Willow. "The First always plays games, mind games. It's trying to scare us, scare us into running away or worrying about what's coming next."

"And what do you think's coming next?" asked Phoebe.

"More mind games," said Willow. "It'll try to use all our fears, our guilts against us. It'll try to drive us mad or have us kill each other."

"Or get us to reopen the Hellmouth," added Prue.

"But we've already shown we can deal with fear," said Caridad. "Or we wouldn't still be standing here."

"There's a lot of different sorts of fear," said Angel who was remembering when The First had targeted him a few years before. "Fear of death, yes we've faced that. But there's fear of failure, fear of loneliness... I won't go on."

"Well I fell guilty just by being here," said Rona who received stares from the others. "I mean why me?" she continued. "All those others have gone but I'm still here. They're as good or better than me. Why am I still here?"

Buffy took Rona's hand and looked her in the eye. "We all feel like that," she said. "It's normal. But we are here, nobody else, just us, so it's up to us."

The cloud suddenly picked up speed and surrounded them cutting off everybody from everybody else. Everybody not only lost sight of the others but sound of them as well. Everybody was suddenly alone.


	30. Mind Games

**Chapter Thirty: Mind Games**

Phoebe had been standing next to her sister when the cloud suddenly rushed over the cliff edge towards them but now she was on her own. She shouted and walked about waving her arms around but couldn't find anybody else. As she moved about she became aware of a rising dread within her, a feeling that something awful was about to happen and she'd better get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Buffy!" called Willow, "Prue! Anybody?" But there was no reply, just a uniform greyness. Or rather not quite uniform because Willow could just about see shadowy figures moving at the edge of her vision. She moved towards them but could not seem to get any nearer. She thought about calling a witch light but decided against it in order to avoid draining herself any more before she really needed to.

Angel stood motionless. He had decided that whatever happened he would stand firm. If this was The First he was determined not to let it get to him again in the way it had done before. He had not expected everybody else to pretty well vanish but assumed that it was another trick.

As Angel remained in place and looked around him for any tangible sort of threat he heard whispering in his ear. He turned completely around but could see nothing. Listening intently he could not make out any words but the whispering seemed to be getting louder.

"Rona!" called somebody evidently in pain. Rona turned and rushed over to where she thought the voice was coming from but she got it wrong because the voice called again from behind her. "Help me! Please!" Rona dashed back again and only at the last moment managed to stop herself from rushing off the edge of the cliff.

Caridad stood shivering. She was cold, very cold. She started to move around to try to keep warm but she just seemed to be getting colder. "Hello!" she shouted but there was no reply. "What's happening?" she called, but still no response.

It's a trick Caridad told herself, a trick, I'm not really cold. Oh yes I am she thought. Not knowing what else to do she waited, she gripped her sword and waited but as she did so she began to feel afraid. She had been afraid for a long time but this was somehow different, and it was getting worse.

As soon as the cloud appeared all around them Prue tried to use her power to drive it away. Either she was having no affect or all or the cloud that she was moving was simply being replaced by more cloud swirling back into place. She stopped and began to think. This thing plays mind games does it? Well perhaps this cloud is all in the mind. She began to concentrate.

For Buffy everybody gradually faded away. She went towards Willow but couldn't find her. At last she saw somebody standing still, holding a sword. It was Angel. He confirmed that like Buffy he had not been able to see or hear anybody else once the cloud had arrived. Together they walked through the thick clouds of vapour to try to find the others but without success.

"I've been thinking," said Angel. "This is Hell. The rules are different here."

"I know," said Buffy. "Not for as long as you did but I've been on a visit before. It was nothing like this though."

"There are many hells," said Angel. "I was there for years or that's what it seemed like. Perhaps we have to stay here for years."

"Time went differently in the hell I visited," said Buffy. "One day on Earth was several years in hell."

"It was the same for Connor," said Angel. "He was only gone for a few weeks but years passed in Quortoth. He grew up there from a baby to a teenager. Maybe we could be here until we die of old age and only a little time will have gone by on Earth. The First might just have to wait long enough and it wins anyway."

"You don't get old remember," said Buffy. "Anyway I don't believe that. If all it had to do was wait it wouldn't have made all those other attacks."

"Those attacks may not have come from The First," said Angel. "There are more powers than The First down here and we're not exactly popular with any of them."

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Caridad was still cold, freezing cold. She hugged herself, jumped up and down and stamped her feet but nothing seemed to help. She kept moving within a small area but still couldn't see or hear anybody else. She was now quite terrified, terrified of the unknown, terrified of being alone, terrified that she was the last one left and that everything depended on her.

Suddenly she saw it. The stairway leading back up to the Hellmouth. Up those stairs was the way out. Up those stairs were friends. The Whitelighters were still there, they'd be able to help. She began to move in that direction.

Rona tried to stop listening to the voices but they still continued to cry out. She thought she could recognise some of them, they sounded like other potentials that had not made it this far. I've got to stand firm she kept telling herself. I might be the only one left. "You're not gonna trick me again." she shouted remembering how she had nearly fallen over the cliff edge. She started shivering.

Phoebe had considered flying up above the cloud to get away from the awful whatever it was that she knew was coming. The only thing that stopped her was the conviction that leaving the area was exactly what The First wanted her to do. Phoebe was terrified of what was coming but she half believed that the terror had been brought on by the cloud, The First or whatever it was. The other thing that prevented her from moving was another fear entirely.

Phoebe had already lost one sister, maybe two but she still had Paige back on the other side of the Hellmouth. Paige was safe and sound and that's the way Phoebe intended it to stay. If she let this, whatever it was, get past her Paige was the next in line as well as all those millions of people who would die if that meteor came down. As far as Phoebe was concerned nothing was getting past her to attack Paige. There would be at least one sister still standing when this was all over.

Willow had so far been visited by The First in the form of Buffy and then of Tara but she had tested each of them and they had both promptly disappeared. It was quite pathetic really she thought because The First should know that everybody knew by now that it could imitate the dead. It should really come up with a new trick.

But why hasn't it come up with a new trick thought Willow? Why doesn't it pretend to be Giles or Xander or one of the others we've lost since coming in here? Because it can't thought Willow. Perhaps what we've done already has weakened it or perhaps it's just too obvious.

Perhaps it's just distracting me while it works on the others thought Willow. Maybe it's not my turn yet she thought and shuddered. "Whatever you're up to it's not gonna work," shouted Willow. I hope, she added to herself.

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"If this goes on much longer I think we should try to get clear of the cloud," said Angel to Buffy. "It didn't look all that big. Perhaps we can climb above it. We might be able to see everybody else from up above."

"You're wasting your time you know," said Buffy to Angel, "I'm not going anywhere. I know you're not really Angel, you're The First. You can come up with as much gloom and doom as you like, I'm staying right here and you're not gonna reopen the Hellmouth."

Angel or rather The First smiled. "Then you're gonna be here for a very long time," he said. "If fact, with no way out you're dooming not only yourself but everybody else who came down here with you."

"But I'm not dooming the people back on Earth?" asked Buffy picking up on something The First hadn't said. "In that case I'm winning and, more to the point, you're losing."

"You think you know it all now don't you," said Angel/The First. "You know all about The First Evil, all about how to keep the Hellmouth closed, all about how to defeat me. Well think again." With that The First morphed into Joyce Summers and walked towards Buffy. To Buffy's astonishment Joyce/The First slapped Buffy hard across the face.

"You're not my mother!" said Buffy stepping back. "Just because you're now corporeal. You're still The First."

"Yes she is," said a voice behind Buffy. "But I'm not."

Buffy turned to find her mother stood behind her. She turned quickly back to see The First/Joyce still in front of her and rapidly backed away so as to see both Joyces at once.

"This is a trick," said Buffy. "Another trick. I know you're stronger down here. It doesn't make any difference. The Hellmouth stays shut."

"I'm afraid you don't understand Honey," said the new Joyce. "The First always wanted you to shut the Hellmouth. It wants you down here permanently, where you can't stop it doing what it wants back on Earth."

"Then perhaps you'll tell me what it wants to do back on Earth," said Buffy. "Since you know all about it."

"Oh honey," said the new Joyce. "You never used to be like this. Things must have been very hard for you since I died. I'm so sorry."

Buffy took a deep breath and tried to convince herself that the new Joyce wasn't getting to her. "Just... please answer the question."

"OK," said the new Joyce. "The First was woken up when you were pulled out of heaven. It created an imbalance that won't be restored until you return. Until that happens The First can still operate. It can keep trying to become corporeal and eventually it might be able to enter the Higher Realms itself because of the imbalance."

"So what are you saying?" asked Buffy.

"You've got to return," said Joyce. "You've got to go back to Earth and then you've got to return to heaven. It's the only way to stop it. I'll be there with you honey."

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Prue continued to concentrate on trying to see what was there, what was really there, not the fog that she thought was clouding her mind. She knew that Phoebe must be somewhere nearby. There's no way I'm leaving her and I'm just as sure she'd never leave me behind she thought.

Prue had now devised a suitable spell chant and began to chant in a loud voice over and over:

_"Clear my mind_

_Let me see_

_Bring my sister near to me"_

"That's very clever dear," said Patty Halliwell. "But don't you think you should give this a little more thought?"

Prue nearly stopped chanting at the sight of her dead mother but forced herself to ignore her and continue. I'm not going to be distracted by this First thing she thought. It's not mom, not really.

"I think you're making a big mistake," said Patty Halliwell before fading away.

Phoebe heard a whispering but could still see nothing through the fog. She circled slowly with her hands outstretched but could feel nothing. The whispering continued and gradually became louder. Phoebe realised it sounded like Prue. At last she could understand the words of the chant and joined in. As she did so the fog thinned a little to her right and there was her sister. Keeping up the chant she went towards Prue and embraced her.

"OK," said Prue, "That worked, let's continue." She started chanting again with one minor change and Phoebe, holding tightly to her sister's hand once again joined in:

_"Clear my mind_

_Let me see_

_Bring my friends near to me"_

Willow had become used to seeing shadows and hearing whispers but being unable to come to grips with anybody or anything making the shadows or the sounds. She had gotten to the stage of trying to ignore them both. She had decided to throw everything into a last effort spell to try to get rid of the cloud and was trying to work out something suitable when one particular whisper began registering.

The whisper sounded like a chant, a spell chant and she gradually made out the words. She hoped it was the Halliwell sisters but anyway could not see how it would do any harm if she joined in. She added her voice to the chanting and began concentrating on the meaning of the words. Of course she thought as she continued with the chant, this cloud's only in the mind.

The whole cloud began thinning, at least for Prue, Phoebe and Willow. As it did Willow at last saw the sisters nearby and went over to them. Willow clasped hands with both Halliwells and all three witches continued the chant.

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Buffy was now in a quandary. Should she stick to the original plan and stay put thus making sure that the Hellmouth stayed shut or was this second Joyce telling the truth? Was it really her mother and if it was, was she right in what she said or had she been deceived somehow? She suddenly smiled as she realised the solution.

"Now it's you who thinks she knows it all," said Buffy smiling at the new Joyce. "You think you're so clever but you've made a few mistakes and I know you're still The First and not really my mother." In fact Buffy knew nothing of the sort but she had played a little poker with her friends and had decided to bluff. The First doesn't know what I'm thinking she thought or we wouldn't have gotten this far.

"Well it's up to you honey," said the new Joyce. "Maybe you're right. You always knew more about what was going on than I ever did."

"Do you remember the tales of Br'er Rabbit?" said the other Joyce, the admitted Joyce/The First. "Don't throw me on the briar patch!" With that Joyce/The First laughed and disappeared.

Buffy knew the reference very well. The story concerned told of how the crafty rabbit got his enemy to do just what he wanted by telling him not to do just that. The First was still playing games by implying that even if the other Joyce was really the First she was telling Buffy the right thing to do knowing that it was the last thing Buffy would actually do.

Buffy now turned to the remaining Joyce. "You've forgotten something," she said. "You've forgotten I'm The Slayer." And that means I solve problems by fighting them she mentally added. With that Buffy swung the Battle Scythe at Joyce in order to cut her head off.

Buffy had decided to take the bluff the whole way. She still wasn't sure that this new Joyce wasn't really her mother but she did know that her mother was dead so she couldn't kill her and she knew from Tara and Jenny that her mother had moved on. The First on the other hand now seemed to have become corporeal, at least this side of the Hellmouth so perhaps the Scythe could now kill it. Maybe that was The First's big mistake.

The Scythe would have gone through Joyce's neck had she not moved but she jumped back to avoid its swing. Now Joyce snarled and morphed into the giant arthropod form that The First had shown on a few brief occasions. Pretending to be somebody as nice as my mom must be a real strain for something called The First Evil thought Buffy.

The First in its monster form was big and it was fast but that didn't faze Buffy. She was used to fighting big and fast monsters. In fact in the past few hours she'd been fighting bigger and faster creatures than the First was now. Buffy wielding the Battle Scythe was now more formidable than she'd ever been. Try as it might the creature could not get past the fast whirling blade.

Buffy was jubilant. She was right. It wasn't really her mother, it was The First all along and it had been trying to get her to reopen the Hellmouth. No way was she going to allow that to happen now. Now it was all down to fighting and that was just the way she liked it. Now she could really enjoy herself.

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As the witches continued to chant their spell other figures began to appear out of the fog although as they did so it became apparent that the fog had not cleared for them. Rona was standing nervously clutching her sword and glaring suspiciously about her. Angel, less obviously nervous was doing much the same but Buffy and Caridad were missing.

"Look!" said Phoebe pointing upwards. Her call distracted the other witches from continuing their chant but by now the cloud had cleared, at least for the three of them and the halting of the chant did not bring it back.

Phoebe had pointed to Caridad who was twenty feet up the rock face and still climbing.

"What's she doing?" asked Prue.

"She's been tricked by The First," said Willow. "We'd better get her down."

Phoebe flew up alongside Caridad and put her arms around her and then dropped the two of them back to the ground.

"What... what's happening?" said Caridad. "What's going on?" She still seemed to still be unaware of the others as her questions were directed to nobody specific as she glanced around her.

"Caridad!" said Willow taking the girl's arm and looking into her eyes. Suddenly Caridad could see them as the fog faded from her vision.

"You can see OK now?" asked Prue. "No more cloud?"

It turned out that Caridad had thought she was going up a stairway back to the Hellmouth entrance until Phoebe brought her down.

The witches now went over to Angel and Rona and released them from the cloud by calling their names from nearby.

"So where's Buffy?" asked Angel.

"She's here," said Willow. "I can feel her. We just can't see her. The First hasn't finished playing its games." She called Buffy's name but nothing happened.

"We'd better carry on with the spell," said Prue. "We need to bring her out of it with that before we can release her." With that she started another chant which the others quickly joined, even the non-witches:

_"Clear my mind_

_Let me see_

_Bring The Slayer near to me"_

Buffy continued to fight the creature. The fight was taking longer than she had expected but she was in no hurry. The Battle Scythe was proving to be powerful enough to damage The First. She had inflicted wounds on two of its legs and it had slowed down a little from when the fight had started.

The longer the fight went on the more confident Buffy felt. Instead of defending all the time she was attacking more and more. Most of the time now the creature was backing away and Buffy was moving forward. Maybe the magic in the Scythe is strong enough to kill the First thought Buffy.

"Buffy stop!" yelled Willow from behind her and Buffy stopped, more in surprise than anything else.

Buffy had been moving forward towards the creature but now everything seemed to change focus, the ground, the rock walls, the creature, everything.

"You're right on the edge," added Willow. "Move back."

Now Buffy could see two images in front of her. One showed the creature, still threatening her from a few feet away, with its back to the rock wall. The other image showed Buffy that she stood on the edge of the cliff, about to fall onto the plain below. Slowly, still keeping up her guard, she backed away. As she did so the other image and The First faded away.

Everybody gathered round and exchanged details of what had happened to them but Buffy wasn't the only one to keep up her guard with her weapon.

"Does The First count as the seventh horde?" asked Rona. "Because it wasn't exactly a horde. There was only one cloud or only one First Evil and we didn't exactly kill it."

"I think horde was only a very approximate translation of the original wording," said Willow. "Anyway the horde might be all the people it pretends to be."

The cloud had now completely dispersed. "Is that it?" asked Buffy. "Is this real or am I being deceived again? We haven't killed The First but have we beaten it?" I wish Giles were still here she thought. He always had an answer to the difficult questions.

"So what happens next?" asked Phoebe. "If we did win can we leave now? How do we do that without opening the Hellmouth again?"

"I don't think we..." began Prue but she stopped talking as everything around them rapidly faded from sight.


	31. The Road Goes Ever On and On

_Authors Note: This is the final chapter of this story. Many thanks for the kind words from the various reviewers._

**Chapter Thirty One: The Road Goes Ever On and On**

Buffy's first thought was that the cloud was back again and The First had not finished playing with them. The blackout didn't last long however and as things began to come back into focus she heard voices chatting away all around her.

"It's Buffy," said one female voice. "Is that good news or bad news?" Good news I hope thought Buffy although I suppose that depends on who's asking.

"It's all of them," said another voice, this time a male voice, in fact the voice of... Xander!

Now Buffy could see the people stood around her, every one of them a familiar face. As well as Xander the group included Anya and Cordelia and, and there was Giles. As Buffy continued to look around she realised that the final seven defenders seemed to have been transported to rejoin those who had fallen earlier in the battle.

It was not only those who had gone through the Hellmouth who were present however. Willow was stood next to her looking as bewildered as Buffy herself felt until Tara rushed forward and hugged her. So if everybody's here she thought where's...

"Buffy," said Dawn running forward and hugging her. "Did you do it? Did you stop the First?"

"Did we?" asked Buffy as she pulled back a little from Dawn. "I think we did. But what just happened?"

"What happened Giles?" asked Buffy, happy to once more be able to turn to him for the answers. "Why are we here? Why are you all here? We thought you were all dead. Are we all dead?" As she asked the question Buffy realised that she was back in the basement of Sunnydale High.

"I think we'd better hear from you first," said Giles. "About what happened after I uh, left."

It took a while for all the hubbub to settle down and for people to do more listening than talking. When it did it became clear that everybody who'd gone into the Hellmouth had come out again. Everybody that is except Glory and Jasmine. Even Darla and Drusilla had returned there along with everybody else.

Most people had thought they were dying and had been surprised to find themselves unharmed back in the school basement. Others however had been struck down so quickly that they had no memory of injury or death. Their last memory had been of when they were on the other side of the Hellmouth fighting demons, monsters or whatever.

Buffy and the other seven last arrivals had no memory of being killed but they couldn't be sure that they too hadn't been struck down so quickly that they had no memory of what had happened. However there was Faith.

Buffy knew that Faith was still alive when she disappeared and she had appeared back in the basement straight afterwards so it might mean that Buffy and the last arrivals had just been returned back to Earth after their job was done.

Faith's wish had been to be back with her friends and after her victory her wish had been fulfilled. She had gone straight to the school basement where most of her friends had already returned.

Wherever they had gone after winning their fights neither Glory nor Jasmine had returned to the school basement like everybody else. What Buffy and the others did not know was that Glory and Jasmine had each had their own wish fulfilled by their victories. Glory to return home and Jasmine to make her home in the hell dimension.

After listening to the last seven survivors provide details of the final conflict with the First, Giles, helped by Tara and Paige now did what tests he could and established as far as possible that there was no more Hellmouth.

"It looks like you did it," said Giles.

"We did it," said Buffy. "All of us."

"Yes," agreed Giles. "It looks like we did it. No more Hellmouth. That should mean no more danger from the meteor and with a bit of luck The First is locked away on the other side."

"So what's with all that fading away business?" asked Rona, "because if I'd known all you guys were OK it would have made things a lot easier back there."

"Yeah," said Caridad to a group of the other enhanced potentials. "Were you guys having a party back here while we were stuck in that awful fog?" The potentials now drifted away to the other end of the basement to talk about what had happened to them.

"Some party!" said Tara with feeling to Willow as the potentials moved away.

"Did something happen back here?" asked Willow. She was taking a rest sat on the ground with her back to the wall. Tara sat down beside her, put her arm around Willow's waist and snuggled close.

"After you guys went into the Hellmouth Leo called up a lot more Whitelighters," said Tara. "It was just as well he did because we needed them."

"Still some demons and vamps on this side huh," said Willow.

"Oh yeah," said Tara. "They thought everybody would have gone through the Hellmouth and they could open it up again from this side and take you all by surprise."

"But they got the big surprise then," said Willow.

"You should have seen me with my extra flamey sword," said Tara waving her arm around in mime of swordplay. She then went on to describe how she, Paige and the Whitelighters had dealt with the demons and vampires in their own battle back on Earth.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Were we really there?" asked Buffy. "Or was it just our spirits or astral thingies or something?"

"You were really there," said Paige. "Or at least you didn't leave your bodies behind back here or anything."

"I think it's because you were all fighting on the side of Light," said Leo. "I suppose you can't stay dead in a Hell dimension when you're fighting on the side of Light."

"So we couldn't really lose then," said Xander.

"Oh no," said Giles. "What Leo said might be right, I don't know, but I do know that if we'd lost one of those battles the demons would have come into our world and destroyed it."

"Instead of us keeping the Hellmouth shut they would have been keeping it open," said Wesley.

"And the meteor would have hit," said Prue.

"So if we'd lost there and come back here alive we'd probably have been killed here soon after when the meteor hit." said Willow getting back to her feet again with Tara to rejoin the group.

"So does that mean we're safe from that meteor then?" asked Buffy. "Is there some way we can check?"

Leo orbed away to check with Whitelighter Central. He took with him all of the other Whitelighters apart from Jenny and Tara and of course Paige. Tara orbed Fred and Willow back to Castle Buffy to do a computer check, through the on-line connections that Fred had used before. Phoebe and Cordelia worked together to see if they could obtain a vision or message giving the all clear.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The first to obtain information were Fred and Willow. They were orbed back by Tara.

"No worry from the meteor," Fred announced. "It hasn't changed its course. It's still gonna miss us with a lot to spare."

Leo arrived back and similarly confirmed that as far as he could establish with the elders the danger had now passed.

Despite their best efforts Cordelia and Phoebe received nothing in the way of further visions or messages which Prue announced was a good sign.

"I mean Phoebe only gets messages about bad things coming," she said. "She never gets an all clear message afterwards. No message, no bad."

"Same here," said Cordelia. "It's like the TV or the newspapers, only bad news allowed."

"So no mystic thank-you or well done," said Xander. "I think we need a better agent."

"Well there's gonna be a big thank you all right," said Buffy. "We'll thank each other. After we've all had a chance to rest there's gonna be a big party at my place."

Buffy turned to lead the way upstairs into the school and off home when she met Wood coming downstairs.

"You're not gonna believe this," he said. "But Sunnydale has returned to normal."

"Normal," asked Dawn. "What's normal for Sunnydale?"

"The school's back in business up there," explained Wood. "No damage, no bodies, no fallout from the battle at all. Normal classes are in session. Rather than everybody walking through the school perhaps Tara and her friends could take you all away quietly."

Piper and Phoebe exchanged glances. "It looks like the Cleaners have been called in," said Piper. She explained to everybody nearby about the Cleaners and the previous experiences of the Halliwells with them.

Leo and Paige orbed the Halliwells back home after they had all promised to come to the planned celebration party. Everybody else was orbed back to Castle Buffy in groups by Tara and Jenny except Wood who went upstairs to once again take over as School Principal.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Over the next few days it became clear that it wasn't just the High School which had returned to normal but the whole of Sunnydale. The general population had no awareness that anything unusual had happened. Nobody seemed to know that the town had been evacuated for a time and only those involved knew anything about a big battle taking place to save the world.

A phone call by Angel to Lorne in LA revealed that all was quiet in the city from a demon and vampire perspective.

"I think you got through several years' worth of bad guys," said Lorne. "The ones who are left are keeping a pretty low profile at the moment. If my club wasn't already out of business I'd be going out of business."

Lorne was given an invitation to the party. As it was quiet in LA the rest of the LA people decided to stay on in Sunnydale until after the party. The only other person who was invited apart from those involved in the big battle was Kate. Gwen insisted on telling her everything that had happened, especially as by then there was no longer any problem about Faith.

The witches had all got together a couple of days before the party to carry out the forget spell to clear Faith's record. The spell that was finally carried out was not in the end a world changing magic monk type of spell. What was done was to insert into the public record an official pardon which declared that Faith had been wrongfully convicted and had been legitimately released. Everything about her being a wanted fugitive was officially written off as an administrative snafu.

The return of Tara, Prue and Jenny was tackled in a more mundane way. There were no witnesses to the deaths of any one of the three women outside the circle of friends and relations. It was therefore decided to keep any magic track covering in reserve in case of future problems.

For the time being the group decided to offer a vague explanation of mistaken identity to any query. This was backed up by a few changes to certain gravestones plus the alteration of a few official computer records carried out by Willow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The party itself five days later was a big success, well a big success for everybody who didn't want things to be livened up by soulless vampires, demons, zombies or worse.

"I think if any surviving demons or vampires heard about this party and who's here they wouldn't stop running," said Angel.

"Is that running towards us or running away from us?" asked Buffy. "With my record for parties I should have just called another party every time I wanted to find a big bad. It would have come to the party. My parties always turn out bad."

"Until now," said Xander.

"Don't say that," chorused Buffy, Willow, Cordelia and Anya. Angel, Tara and Giles just smiled.

"Every time somebody says something like that something bad always happens," said Buffy.

"Buffy!" called Dawn from across the room, "Buffy!"

"I knew it," declared Buffy glaring at Xander as she went looking for Dawn. "This is your fault, whatever it is."

But of course it wasn't Xander's fault. Dawn and the other potentials were discovering that their upgrade to slayer power had just run out. They were all back to being potentials again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Over the next two weeks the potentials, apart of course from Dawn, all left. Many of them went back to live with their families but not all of them had family to go back to. Wesley agreed to become watcher to Sophie and Ingrid who went with him and the LA people to live in the city.

Giles returned to England to start to rebuild the Watchers' Council. He took Molly and Lakshmi with him. Jenny also announced that oh so coincidentally she had been assigned to work in England for the time being and might be able to drop in on Giles from time to time. Darla and a very subdued Drusilla stayed long enough to attend the party but had disappeared from Castle Buffy by the following morning, destination unknown.

All three of the souled vampires had refused offers by Cordelia to try to make them human. Angel still felt that his job was not yet done and he would not be able to perform it as a human. Darla couldn't stand the thought of growing old after so many years of being ageless and anyway didn't want to risk what had happened to her before when she had returned to being human. Drusilla did not reveal her reasons to Cordelia. She loathed being a vampire but her power to know something of the future told her that she should stay the way she was, at least for the time being.

Buffy and Angel had a few nights together and some long talks before he went back to LA with the rest of the LA crowd. One impediment to renewing their relationship had been removed now that Angel no longer had the 'perfect happiness' curse hanging over him. Angel however remembered that it wasn't the curse that had caused him to break up with Buffy. He was still ageless and she wasn't.

Buffy was aware that she was no longer the same person she had been four years before. She wasn't sure that she wanted to be that person again. As always between Buffy and Angel nothing was finally decided. They would keep in touch, in better touch than they had for the past few years but they would continue to live separate lives for the time being.

Willow and Tara were in no doubt about their future plans. Willow would go back to college as would Tara at least to the extent that her Whitelighter duties allowed. Since Tara's witch charges were Willow, Cordelia, Amy and Anya plus keeping an eye on Dawn if she went in that direction she would be spending most of her time in Sunnydale anyway.

The days after the big battle was over showed no local vampire or demon activity at all. Tara's Whitelighter contacts revealed that activities by dark forces were at a low level world wide, possibly because of all the casualties they had sustained in the big battle. There was no trace of the presence of The First Evil anymore. For the foreseeable future it seemed that Tara would be called away very little from where she wanted to be.

Anya and Amy set about getting the Magic Box back up and running. Anya mentally revived her plans for future expansion beyond the confines of a small Californian town and asked Willow for help in setting up a new and improved Magic Box website.

Much to her disappointment Dawn went back to school. She found it a struggle at first having to pretend that everything was normal and she had just been absent with the flu but at least she didn't get any hassle from the Principal.

Xander went back to work and began to think about dating again. It was while he was sat quietly in a corner eating his lunch on site one day that he overheard a nearby conversation that made him aware for the first time of the reputation that he had acquired in small town Sunnydale:

"Xander Harris?" said the first man. "Oh yeah, I remember him from High School. A complete loser."

Xander winced.

"This can't be the same Xander Harris," said a second man.

"That's right," said a third man. "Our Xander must be the hottest guy in Sunnydale as far as the chicks are concerned."

"Yeah," said a fourth man. "Every time you see him in the Bronze he's surrounded by beautiful women. I don't mean good looking I mean seriously beautiful women, like Playboy or Hollywood beautiful and he's usually the only guy with them."

"I heard he goes to parties where he's the only guy there," said a fifth man. "Man, whatever he's got I want some of it myself."

The voices drifted away leaving a stunned and buoyant Xander.

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For a while the slayers continued with regular patrols around Sunnydale but with no Hellmouth to attract them there was no reason for demons and vampires to come to the town and every reason for them to stay well away. It was while patrolling together one quiet evening that Buffy and Faith discussed future plans.

"I was thinking about going back to college with Willow and Tara," said Buffy. "What about you?"

"Never graduated High School remember," said Faith. "I don't think they'll let me in college. Anyway I'm not the college type. Nor are you."

"What do you mean?" asked Buffy. "I so am college material. Did I ever tell you my SAT results?"

"Hey," said Faith putting her hands up. "I'm not saying you don't have the brains. I'm just saying you're not the college type. Neither of us are college types."

"Just because you're not the type to finish High School doesn't mean I shouldn't go to college," said Buffy.

"You never got that did you?" said Faith. "You and Willow and all the rest. You all just thought I was stupid."

"Not stupid no," said Buffy. "But I think you should have finished High School."

"That's why you're different to other slayers Buffy," said Faith. "You think differently. You never thought through what being a slayer meant did you?"

"Spit it out Faith," said Buffy, now getting a little annoyed. "Just what do you mean?"

"OK," said Faith. "It goes something like this. The Chosen One, one girl in all the world, de dah, de dah. Fights the vampires and the demons yeah?"

"Yeah," acknowledged Buffy.

"A slayer's life is short, that's what I always figured," said Faith. "How long did Kendra last, a year?"

"About that I suppose," said Buffy.

"That's probably longer than some," said Faith. "How many people do you think would carry on going to school if they thought they only had a year or two ahead of them?"

"Well, some people enjoy school," said Buffy.

"Yeah," replied Faith. "But there aren't many Willows around. I once stayed up all night fighting vamps, killed about four of them, saved some lives and got it in the neck the next day at school for not handing in an essay on 'What I did on Holiday'. That's the day I dropped out of school. I figured I didn't have time for any of that crap."

"OK," said Buffy. "But everything's calmed down. There's no reason why I shouldn't go back to college. No reason why you shouldn't finish your education."

"No more Hellmouth so you're saying Sunnydale looks like it'll be a quiet little town from now on," said Faith. "OK, could be. But you're still the slayer and it's a big world. One day soon Giles or Angel or somebody else will call about some big emergency somewhere else. If you're in college you'll have to drop out again to deal with it. What'll you do? Are you gonna leave it to me and Kennedy?"

"Why not?" replied Buffy.

"Hah!" said Faith in complete disbelief.

After a while the patrols were stopped as no longer having any purpose. Buffy was back working at the school but had not given up on her plans to go back to college when the new college year started.

Faith was receiving an allowance from Giles and Kennedy had her family money behind her but both of them were becoming restless. When therefore they heard from Giles several weeks after closing the Hellmouth that he needed them in England to deal with an escaped 'Old One' and its minions they caught the first plane out. Buffy went with them leaving Dawn with Willow and Tara. However all that's another story...

The End


End file.
